Parametric LCA model for power electronic ecodesign process: Addressing MOSFET-Si and HEMT-GaN technological issues

Abstract

Traditional efforts of the last decades to optimize energy efficiency during the use phase of power electronic (PE) appear insufficient for achieving environmental sustainability. These single-criterion optimization approaches often lead to unintended negative environmental impacts, such as air, water, and soil pollutions, or additional raw material flow extraction to develop new technologies. Design options easing repair, reuse, and recycling of PE products are usually reduced with higher power density technology choices. Life cycle assessment (LCA) offers a framework for evaluating these impacts, but the conventional LCA is primarily for post-design evaluation, and is resource- and time-intensive. To make LCA a proactive design method that allows teams to monitor environmental consequences from the beginning of design planning, this study developed a parametric life cycle assessment (PLCA) meta-model specifically for PE, integrated into an innovative ecodesign process. The PLCA meta-model identifies key parameters influencing environmental impacts across the product life cycle and establishes mathematical relationships between these control parameters and environmental impact indicators. The case study results shows that the integration of this new PLCA model in the beginning of the design process has supported PE designers to develop, evaluate, and optimize ecodesign PE product circular life cycle scenarios.