Jo Apr 14, 2026
Vanadium redox flow batteries (VRFBs) are large-scale electrochemical energy storage systems that enable the supply of stable and reliable power from wind or solar energy. Proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs) are efficient and environmentally friendly electro-chemical energy conversion systems that produce only water and heat with clean hydrogen produced using renewable energy as fuel. On the other hand, EHC is an advanced electrochemical system that is indispensable for hydrogen energy cycle systems that purify and compress hydrogen simultaneously.
Sulfonated polyetheretherketone (SPEEK) membranes have been widely regarded as inexpensive proton exchange membranes for electrochemical energy systems such as VRFBs, PEMFCs and EHC due to their ease of fabrication, low cost, good proton conductivity, and excellent thermal and chemical stability.
General requirements for these applications are high proton conductivity, chemical and mechanical stability and impermeability of fuels and oxidants.
In order to improve the performance of membranes, Ju Il Myong, a researcher at the Faculty of Chemical Engineering, developed SPEEK/TiO2 nanopaper composite membranes with TiO2 nanopaper as a backbone and SPEEK polymer as a proton conducting medium, and evaluated their physicochemical properties.
Compared to pristine membranes, the SPEEK/TiO2 nanopaper composite membranes show nearly twice tensile strength, about 1/3 of vanadium permeability and low hydrogen gas permeability, and better performance and long lifetime in VRFB, PEMFC and EHC systems. The experimental results show that SPEEK/TiO2 nanopaper composite membranes can replace commercial Nafion® membranes in electrochemical energy systems.
If more information is needed, please refer to his paper “SPEEK/TiO2 Nanopaper Composite Membranes for Electrochemical Energy Systems” in “Proceedings of KUTIC-2025”.
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Jo Apr 13, 2026
Recently, environmental protection has become a very important issue in the world. Many enterprises are recycling as much waste material as possible from their production processes, and they are concerned about energy consumption and environmental issues of production processes.
Generally, biological sewage treatment is widely applied to treating sewage containing a large amount of organic matter including farm sewage and domestic sewage. The most energy-consuming process in these methods is the blowing equipment of the aeration system for supplying dissolved oxygen to sewage. Therefore, improving aeration facilities to increase oxidation efficiency is important to reduce power consumption.
Use of microbubbles in the aeration process of biological sewage treatment has been reported to significantly improve sewage treatment parameters, especially with a significant reduction in energy consumption.
Ji Chol Hyok, a researcher at the Instititute of Nano Science and Technology, investigated the effect of introducing fluidic oscillation into a sewage aerator to enhance oxygen transfer efficiency and generate smaller bubbles.
The experimental results showed that the overall wastewater treatment parameters were improved in microbubble aeration combined with FOs.
You can find more information in his paper “Improving the Efficiency of Biological Sewage Treatment by Applying Porous Membrane Microbubble Generating System Coupled with Fluidic Oscillators” in “Proceedings of KUTIC-2025”.
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Jo Apr 12, 2026
The dependence of the differential negative resistance of a unijunction transistor (UJT) on external behavior is used to develop a new family of microelectronic transistors for measuring temperature, magnetic field, light radiation and pressure. The magnetic sensitivity of UJT in the presence of an externally applied magnetic field depends on this current magnetic effect. To our knowledge, there are no published results regarding the magnetic sensitivity of structures with p+ diffusion rings and surface recombination center regions.
Kim Sang Hyok, a section heat at the Institute of Semiconductor, proposed a unijunction transistor (UJT) of a new structure with enhanced galvanomagnetic effects by using a p+ diffusion ring and improved magnetic sensitivity by forming a recombination region on the surface with an emitter.
He fabricated the device on an n-type <111> orientation silicon mono-crystalline wafer with resistivity of 200Ω·cm and thickness of 250㎛ by using the standard CMOS technology.
The experimental results show that it had the highest magnetic sensitivity of 80V/T when the ratio of Emitter-Base 1 distance to diffusion length is about 1:0 and the width of the Base layer limited by the p+ diffusion loop is twice the Emitter width.
You can find more information in his paper “A New Structure of High-Sensitivity Magnetically Unijunction Transistor” in “Proceedings of KUTIC-2025”.
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Jo Apr 10, 2026
Manganese, the tenth most abundant in the earth’s crust, is commonly present in nature with iron and silica, and it is dissolved into groundwater by various hydro-chemical processes. Appropriate manganese intake is essential for human and animal development and plant growth. However, from a health and sensory point of view, the amount of manganese in drinking water should be limited to a very low value.
The value of manganese intake from drinking water recommended by WHO is 0.4mg/L.
The technique of removing manganese from water is based on the oxidation of soluble manganese forms (Mn2+) to insoluble manganese forms (Mn4+). Various water treatment technologies such as aeration, chlorination, potassium permanganate and ozonization have been proposed. However, these methods are slow in oxidization, require administration of chemical reagents, and are expensive. Therefore, they are complicated to operate in practice and difficult to apply to large-scale water treatment.
Ri Hyang Ran, a researcher at the Faculty of Earth Science and Technology, carried out some experiments to remove manganese from water using brucite marble as filter material and confirmed its applicability.
Magnesium content in the water filtered through the brucite marble filter material layer increased 1.25 times compared to the raw water, and the pH of water increased from 7.4 to over 8. As pH increased, Mn2+ concentration in the filtered water decreased from 0.6mg/L to below 0.05mg/L.
The water treatment method using brucite marble as a filter can effectively remove soluble manganese in water and can be applied to large-scale water treatment at low cost.
For more information, please refer to her paper “Experimental Study on Manganese Removal from Water by Brucite Marble” in “Proceedings of KUTIC-2025”.
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Jo Apr 9, 2026
Fluorapatite Ca10(PO4)6F2 containing the most phosphorus is widely found in igneous and sedimentary rocks. More than 60% of the phosphate currently marketed worldwide is concentrated via flotation processes. To date, there has been a growing body of research on the factors affecting apatite flotation.
According to previous literature, first-principles simulation of such mineral processing has not been fully performed. The only attempt they have made is to build a crystallographic model of a particular mineral to study its material properties and determine the relationship between its composition and properties or to compare what material is more effective as a collector for that ore.
Kim Wi Ryok, a researcher at the Faculty of Chemical Engineering, proposed a new analytical method for determining the optimum value of sodium oleate, considering the effect of the combination of pH modifier NaOH and sodium carbonate on the flotation efficiency with collectors when the optimum value of sodium oleate is used as a collector in the process of apatite flotation. He evaluated the flotation efficiency by calculating adsorption energy by first-principles calculations, calculating ion concentration variations and measuring experimental zeta potential.
The results show that flotation efficiency varies with the amount of the pH modifier even with the same collector, and the optimum value is 1:3 OH-/CO32- mass ratio. It is also shown that the simulated results estimated by the first-principles method are in good agreement with the experimental values and there is enough evidence to apply this method to other ore beneficiation processes.
You can find the details in his paper “Ab Initio Study of the Effect of OH-/CO32- Molar Ratio on Joint Characteristics between Ore & Sodium Oleate Collector in Apatite Flotation” in “Proceedings of KUTIC-2025”.
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Jo Apr 8, 2026
For building demolition and tunneling, many shock tubes must be simultaneously initiated by a detonator. Bunches of shock tubes can be initiated by bunch blocks. The initiation reliability of shock tubes depends primarily upon bunch block design.
Understanding the structural explosion shock mechanisms of bunch blocks is very important in designing bunch blocks without consumption of many shock tubes in experiments.
Choe Yong Chol, a researcher at the Faculty of Mining Engineering, investigated the structural influence of frontal bunch blocks on the initiation reliabilities of bunches of shock tubes by a detonator experimentally and numerically.
The thicker and stronger bunch block bodies and the smaller the standoff distance between detonators and bunches of shock tubes were, the more the experimentally obtained initiation rates increased. And the pressure peaks of explosion shock obtained from numerical simulations increased with increase in the thickness of bunch block bodies and decrease in the standoff distance. The numerically obtained pressure peaks were in good relation with the initiation rate obtained from the experiments.
The results can be employed for evaluating initiation reliability and designing bunch blocks when simultaneous bunch-series initiation of many shock tubes by bunch blocks is needed.
For more information, please refer to his paper “Structural Influence of Frontal Bunch Blocks on the Initiation Reliability of Bunches of Shock Tubes” in “Proceedings of KUTIC-2025”.
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