Thesis (M.S.)--Rochester Institute of Technology, 2006. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 164-168).

Thesis (Ph. D., Environmental Science)--University of Idaho, July 2008. / Major professor: Vivek P. Utgikar. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 108-120). Also available online (PDF file) by subscription or by purchasing the individual file.

Typescript. Includes vita and abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 85-91). Also available online in Scholars' Bank.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of California, Davis, 2007. / Text document in PDF format. Title from PDF title page (viewed on August 30, 2009). "Received by ITS-Davis: February 2007"--Publication detail webpage. Includes bibliographical references (p. 267-271).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--West Virginia University, 2009. / Title from document title page. Document formatted into pages; contains viii, 162 p. : ill. (some col.). Includes abstract. Includes bibliographical references (p. 138-142).

Metal hydrides are promising candidates for H2 storage, but high stability and poor kinetics are the important challenges which have to be solved for vehicular applications. Most of recent experimental reports for improving thermodynamics of metal hydrides have been focused on lowering reaction enthalpies of a metal hydride by mixing other compounds. However, finding out metal hydride mixtures satisfying favorable thermodynamics among a large number of possible metal hydride mixtures is inefficient and thus a systematic approach is required for an efficient and rigorous solution. Our approaches introduced in this thesis allow a systematic screening of promising metal hydrides or their mixtures from all possible metal hydrides and their mixtures. Our approaches basically suggest two directions for improving metal hydride thermodynamics. First, our calculations for examining the relation between the particle size of simple metal hydrides and thermodynamics of their decomposition reactions provide that the relation would depend on the total surface energy difference between a metal and its hydride form. It ultimately suggests that we will be able to screen metal hydride nanoparticles having favorable thermodynamics from all possible metal hydrides by examining the total surface differences. Second, more importantly, we suggest that our thermodynamic calculations combined with the grand canonical linear programming method and updated database efficiently and rigorously screen potential promising bulk metal hydrides and their mixtures from a large collection of possible combinations. The screened promising metal hydrides and their mixtures can release H2 via single step or multi step. Our additional free energy calculations for a few selected promising single step reactions and their metastable paths show that we can identify the most stable free energy paths for any selected reactant mixtures. In this thesis, we also demonstrate that a total free energy minimization method can predict the possible evolution of impurity other than H2 for several specified mixtures. However, it is not ready to predict reaction thermodynamics from a large number of compounds.

Rapporten är skriven för ett högskoleingenjörsexamensarbete på kungliga tekniska högskolan, inom programmet maskinteknik, med inriktning industriell ekonomi och produktion. Bakgrunden av detta arbete ska ge läsaren en grund för de olika modellerna, elbilar och vätgasbilar samt väcka ett intresse för att bevara säkerheten med valet av bil. Syftet och målet med denna studie har varit att presentera en jämförelsestudie, gällande elbilar och vätgasbilar, samt svara på frågeställningarna som arbetet tagit fram. Resultatet av arbetet bygger på både FMEA- analyser för vätgasbilar och elbilar, samt jämförelsematris som ger en förtydligad bild på skillnader mellan elbilar och vätgasbilar, ur vissa valda funktioner. En förtydligad bild av FMEA analysen har byggt, genom att tillämpa ett paretodiagram som beskriver de olika risker och prioritering som finns för respektive modell. Rekommendationer och ytterligare säkerhetsarbeten för att minimera dessa risker beskrivs i FMEA analysen, utifrån indata och beskrivningar från tidigare rapporter, samt kunskap från studier. Resultatet från FMEA- analysen, paretodiagrammet, samt jämförelsematrisen visar att vätgasbilar är en säkrare modell och har en framtid eftersom utvecklingsmöjligheterna fortfarande finns, då dessa är nya på marknaden. Vätgasbilen är även mindre riskbenägen modell jämfört med elbilar, detta kan man visa med hjälp av RPN-talet, som är lägre för vätgasbilar, i jämförelse med elbilarnas RPN-tal. / The background of this thesis will give the reader the basis for the models of electric and hydrogen fueled vehicles. The purpose and goal of this study has been to present a comparative study regarding electric and hydrogen vehicles, and to answer the questions that the study has raised. The results of the work are based on both FMEA analysis for hydrogen and electric vehicles, as well as a comparison matrix that provides a clarified picture of the differences between electric vehicles and hydrogen vehicles, through certain selected factors. A clarified picture of the FMEA analysis results has been built by applying a pareto diagram that describes the different risks of each model and also what their priorities are. Recommendations and additional safety work to minimize these risks are suggested and described in the FMEA analysis, based on input data and descriptions from previous reports, as well as gained knowledge from studies. The results from the FMEA analysis, pareto-diagram and the comparison matrix shows that hydrogen vehicles are a less risk-prone model compared to electric vehicles and have a bright future as development opportunities still exist, this due to the fact that they are still new in the automotive industry. This can be proved with the help of the RPN number for hydrogen vehicles, which is lower compared to the RPN number of electric vehicles.