| Abstract |
Over the last several decades, hydrogen has been considered as a promising green fuel to substitute fossil fuels for heat and power generation. In recent years, the development of hydrogen technology and economy has attracted a great deal of attention because it is a promising route to achieve deep decarbonization of the global energy system. Hydrogen is a non-carbon fuel; therefore, no air pollutants are emitted when hydrogen is burned. Meanwhile, hydrogen is a potential energy carrier, so it can be delivered to the appropriate places for its usage. In recent years, significant progress in proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) has been made. Accordingly, hydrogen can be applied in the transportation sector through the applications of PEMFC. On account of a foreseeable hydrogen-based society in the future, hydrogen production and separation with high-efficiency routes become a crucial task in the implementation of hydrogen technology. In this study, a number of operation and system optimization methods for hydrogen production from thermochemical methods (such as gasification, catalytic partial oxidation, and autothermal reforming) and for hydrogen separation using palladium membranes will be illustrated. The introduced optimization methods include the Taguchi method, response surface method (RSM), and Nelder-Mead method. From these methods, the influences of operating conditions (e.g., temperature, steam-to-carbon ratio, oxygen-to-carbon ratio, and GHSV) on hydrogen yield and recovery can be figured out. The performances of the optimization methods will also be addressed. |
Biographical
Sketch |
Professor Wei-Hsin Chen received his Ph.D. degree from the Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, National Cheng Kung University in 1993. After receiving his Ph.D. degree, Dr. Chen worked in an iron and steel corporation as a process engineer (1994-1995). He joined the Department of Environmental Engineering and Science, Fooyin University in 1995 and was promoted to a full professor in 2001. In 2005, he moved to the Department of Marine Engineering, National Taiwan Ocean University. Two years later (2007), he moved to the Department of Greenergy, National University of Tainan. Now he is a faculty member and distinguished professor at the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics, National Cheng Kung University, Taiwan. Professor Chen visited the Princeton University, USA, from 2004 to 2005, the University of New South Wales, Australia, in 2007, the University of Edinburg, UK, in 2009, the University of British Columbia, Canada, from 2012 to 2013, and the University of Lorraine, France, in 2017 as a visiting professor. He was also an invited lecturer at the University of Lorraine in 2019. His research topics include hydrogen energy, bioenergy, clean energy, carbon capture, and atmospheric science. He has published around 450 papers in international and domestic journals and conferences. He is the associated editor of International Journal of Energy Research, and the editorial members of a number of international journals, including Applied Energy, Energies, BMC Energy, Energy, Ecology and Environment, etc. He is also the author of several books concerning energy science and air pollution. Recently, his important awards include 2015 and 2018 Outstanding Research Award (Ministry of Science and Technology, Taiwan), 2015 Highly Cited Paper Award (Applied Energy, Elsevier), 2017 Outstanding Engineering Professor Award (Chinese Institute of Engineers), 2019 Bioresource Technology Award for Highly Cited Review Article, and 2016, 2017, 2018, and 2019 Web of Science Highly Cited Researcher Awards. |
