Life Cycle Inventory Methods for Power Electronic Converters

Motivated by the growing concerns about the environmental impact of power electronics, researchers are showing interest in applying life cycle assessment (LCA) studies to their converters. The growing interest is however hindered due to the unavailability of a reliable representation of converters and basic components used, in commercial databases. In this paper, different approaches used in literature to generate a life cycle inventory (LCI) for the manufacturing stage are reviewed. The focus is primarily on LCA studies that examine converters or widely used components in power electronics. The methodologies identified are then used to create an inventory for a silicon carbide (SiC) based converter building block as an example. This work also explores how uncertainty can be assigned to LCI representations and its impact on the LCA interpretation results. The approaches presented aim to assist LCA practitioners in power electronics by helping them circumvent data gaps when primary information is unavailable.