Life Cycle Assessment of Power Capacitors
Alaviitala, Tiina (2013)
2013
Sähkötekniikan koulutusohjelma
Tieto- ja sähkötekniikan tiedekunta - Faculty of Computing and Electrical Engineering
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Hyväksymispäivämäärä
2013-11-08
Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:tty-201311221472
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:tty-201311221472
Tiivistelmä
During the recent years, the debate concerning climate change and other environmental threats has been in focus often. This discussion has also created pressure to business, individuals, public administrators and policymakers to integrate environmental considerations into the future decisions. Life cycle assessment is one potential tool developed to help with these decisions.
In power capacitors, polypropene or other polymer materials have been applied as a dielectric medium for several years. The recent developments in nanotechnology suggest that polymer nanocomposites could possess better qualities compared with traditional polymers not only in breakdown voltage but also in the mechanical properties such as tensile strength and Young’s modulus.
In this thesis, the environmental impacts of a traditional capacitor bank and a novel polymer nanocomposite capacitor bank were assessed with the help of life cycle assessment. Process-based life cycle assessment was used to model the environmental impacts of both the traditional capacitor bank and the novel polymer nanocomposite bank. It was assumed that when a nanocomposite film is used instead of traditional polypropene film in a capacitor unit, the number of capacitor units needed would decrease by 20%. The sensitivity and the error of the assessment were studied with the help of sensitivity analysis and Monte Carlo simulation.
On average, the nanocomposite capacitor bank presented 15% smaller impacts than the traditional capacitor bank. This was also observed in the Monte Carlo simulation results. Few impact categories stood out: climate change, metal depletion and natural land transformation. The LCA results indicate clearly that especially for tin an alternative material in electronics should be searched.
It was shown in this thesis that even though nanotecnology could decrease the environmental impacts, it will not solve completely the major issues pointed out in this thesis work.
In power capacitors, polypropene or other polymer materials have been applied as a dielectric medium for several years. The recent developments in nanotechnology suggest that polymer nanocomposites could possess better qualities compared with traditional polymers not only in breakdown voltage but also in the mechanical properties such as tensile strength and Young’s modulus.
In this thesis, the environmental impacts of a traditional capacitor bank and a novel polymer nanocomposite capacitor bank were assessed with the help of life cycle assessment. Process-based life cycle assessment was used to model the environmental impacts of both the traditional capacitor bank and the novel polymer nanocomposite bank. It was assumed that when a nanocomposite film is used instead of traditional polypropene film in a capacitor unit, the number of capacitor units needed would decrease by 20%. The sensitivity and the error of the assessment were studied with the help of sensitivity analysis and Monte Carlo simulation.
On average, the nanocomposite capacitor bank presented 15% smaller impacts than the traditional capacitor bank. This was also observed in the Monte Carlo simulation results. Few impact categories stood out: climate change, metal depletion and natural land transformation. The LCA results indicate clearly that especially for tin an alternative material in electronics should be searched.
It was shown in this thesis that even though nanotecnology could decrease the environmental impacts, it will not solve completely the major issues pointed out in this thesis work.