IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/appene/v220y2018icp496-513.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Life cycle assessment and environmental profile evaluations of high volumetric efficiency capacitors

Author

Listed:
  • Smith, Lucy
  • Ibn-Mohammed, Taofeeq
  • Koh, S.C. Lenny
  • Reaney, Ian M.

Abstract

High volumetric efficiency capacitors are found in all smart electronic devices, providing important applications within circuits, including flexible filter options, power storage and sensing, decoupling and circuit smoothing functions. Multilayer ceramic capacitors (MLCCs) hold the major market share but tantalum electrolytic capacitors (TECs) provide a viable alternative if higher breakdown strengths are required. The reduced costs, smaller dimensions suitable for space-constrained electronic circuits, exceptional high-frequency characteristics, higher reliability, ripple control and longevity, however, are driving the market to replace TECs with MLCCs wherever possible. To date, no current research regarding the transition from TECS to MLCCs has been conducted from an entirely environmental viewpoint. This article identifies, quantifies, ranks and compares the environmental impacts of the MLCC and TEC supply chains using an integrated hybrid life cycle assessment framework. Three recovery methods: incineration; hydrometallurgy and pyrometallurgy are considered in the overall impact assessment. Electrical energy consumption during fabrication alongside the use of nickel paste are the major environmental hotspot for MLCCs. The high proportion of tantalum in TECs results in an overall greater environmental impact in comparison with MLCCs, due to intensive extraction, processing and purification requirements of tantalum. Of the three recovery methods, the hydrometallurgy process offers the least environmental impact for both MLCCs and TECs. Overall, the current work shows that while the industry led transition from TECs to MLCCs offers both an operational and functional edge, it is also an environmentally intelligent move. Intervention options that can further drive down the environmental impacts of MLCCs are also proposed such as a reduction in the reliance of MLCCs on rare earth elements and Cu external electrodes in some designs and material recovery.

Suggested Citation

  • Smith, Lucy & Ibn-Mohammed, Taofeeq & Koh, S.C. Lenny & Reaney, Ian M., 2018. "Life cycle assessment and environmental profile evaluations of high volumetric efficiency capacitors," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 220(C), pages 496-513.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:appene:v:220:y:2018:i:c:p:496-513
    DOI: 10.1016/j.apenergy.2018.03.067
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0306261918304057
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.apenergy.2018.03.067?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Cucchiella, Federica & D’Adamo, Idiano & Lenny Koh, S.C. & Rosa, Paolo, 2015. "Recycling of WEEEs: An economic assessment of present and future e-waste streams," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 51(C), pages 263-272.
    2. Hoenderdaal, Sander & Tercero Espinoza, Luis & Marscheider-Weidemann, Frank & Graus, Wina, 2013. "Can a dysprosium shortage threaten green energy technologies?," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 49(C), pages 344-355.
    3. Veneri, Ottorino & Capasso, Clemente & Patalano, Stanislao, 2017. "Experimental study on the performance of a ZEBRA battery based propulsion system for urban commercial vehicles," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 185(P2), pages 2005-2018.
    4. A. Lake & A. Acquaye & A. Genovese & N. Kumar & S.C.L. Koh, 2015. "An application of hybrid life cycle assessment as a decision support framework for green supply chains," International Journal of Production Research, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 53(21), pages 6495-6521, November.
    5. Aneke, Mathew & Wang, Meihong, 2016. "Energy storage technologies and real life applications – A state of the art review," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 179(C), pages 350-377.
    6. Nease, Jake & Adams, Thomas A., 2015. "Comparative life cycle analyses of bulk-scale coal-fueled solid oxide fuel cell power plants," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 150(C), pages 161-175.
    7. Thollander, Patrik & Danestig, Maria & Rohdin, Patrik, 2007. "Energy policies for increased industrial energy efficiency: Evaluation of a local energy programme for manufacturing SMEs," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 35(11), pages 5774-5783, November.
    8. Strazza, C. & Del Borghi, A. & Costamagna, P. & Traverso, A. & Santin, M., 2010. "Comparative LCA of methanol-fuelled SOFCs as auxiliary power systems on-board ships," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 87(5), pages 1670-1678, May.
    9. Chau, C.K. & Leung, T.M. & Ng, W.Y., 2015. "A review on Life Cycle Assessment, Life Cycle Energy Assessment and Life Cycle Carbon Emissions Assessment on buildings," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 143(C), pages 395-413.
    10. Nagashima, Shin & Uchiyama, Yohji & Okajima, Keiichi, 2017. "Hybrid input–output table method for socioeconomic and environmental assessment of a wind power generation system," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 185(P2), pages 1067-1075.
    11. Golev, Artem & Scott, Margaretha & Erskine, Peter D. & Ali, Saleem H. & Ballantyne, Grant R., 2014. "Rare earths supply chains: Current status, constraints and opportunities," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 41(C), pages 52-59.
    12. Ibn-Mohammed, T. & Koh, S.C.L. & Reaney, I.M. & Acquaye, A. & Schileo, G. & Mustapha, K.B. & Greenough, R., 2017. "Perovskite solar cells: An integrated hybrid lifecycle assessment and review in comparison with other photovoltaic technologies," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 80(C), pages 1321-1344.
    13. Luo, Xing & Wang, Jihong & Dooner, Mark & Clarke, Jonathan, 2015. "Overview of current development in electrical energy storage technologies and the application potential in power system operation," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 137(C), pages 511-536.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Koh, S.C.L. & Smith, L. & Miah, J. & Astudillo, D. & Eufrasio, R.M. & Gladwin, D. & Brown, S. & Stone, D., 2021. "Higher 2nd life Lithium Titanate battery content in hybrid energy storage systems lowers environmental-economic impact and balances eco-efficiency," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 152(C).
    2. Florentin Salomez & Hugo Helbling & Morgan Almanza & Ulrich Soupremanien & Guillaume Viné & Adrien Voldoire & Bruno Allard & Hamid Ben-Ahmed & Daniel Chatroux & Antoine Cizeron & Mylène Delhommais & M, 2024. "State of the Art of Research towards Sustainable Power Electronics," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(5), pages 1-23, March.
    3. Smith, Lucy & Ibn-Mohammed, Taofeeq & Yang, Fan & Reaney, Ian M. & Sinclair, Derek C. & Koh, S.C. Lenny, 2019. "Comparative environmental profile assessments of commercial and novel material structures for solid oxide fuel cells," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 235(C), pages 1300-1313.
    4. Daniele Fiaschi & Giampaolo Manfrida & Karolina Petela & Federico Rossi & Adalgisa Sinicropi & Lorenzo Talluri, 2020. "Exergo-Economic and Environmental Analysis of a Solar Integrated Thermo-Electric Storage," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(13), pages 1-21, July.
    5. Steffi Weyand & Kotaro Kawajiri & Claudiu Mortan & Liselotte Schebek, 2023. "Scheme for generating upscaling scenarios of emerging functional materials based energy technologies in prospective LCA (UpFunMatLCA)," Journal of Industrial Ecology, Yale University, vol. 27(3), pages 676-692, June.
    6. Trianni, Andrea & Cagno, Enrico & Accordini, Davide, 2019. "Energy efficiency measures in electric motors systems: A novel classification highlighting specific implications in their adoption," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 252(C), pages 1-1.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Smith, Lucy & Ibn-Mohammed, Taofeeq & Yang, Fan & Reaney, Ian M. & Sinclair, Derek C. & Koh, S.C. Lenny, 2019. "Comparative environmental profile assessments of commercial and novel material structures for solid oxide fuel cells," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 235(C), pages 1300-1313.
    2. Miguel J. Prieto & Juan Á. Martínez & Rogelio Peón & Lourdes Á. Barcia & Fernando Nuño, 2017. "On the Convenience of Using Simulation Models to Optimize the Control Strategy of Molten-Salt Heat Storage Systems in Solar Thermal Power Plants," Energies, MDPI, vol. 10(7), pages 1-17, July.
    3. Guelpa, Elisa & Bischi, Aldo & Verda, Vittorio & Chertkov, Michael & Lund, Henrik, 2019. "Towards future infrastructures for sustainable multi-energy systems: A review," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 184(C), pages 2-21.
    4. Meng, Hui & Wang, Meihong & Olumayegun, Olumide & Luo, Xiaobo & Liu, Xiaoyan, 2019. "Process design, operation and economic evaluation of compressed air energy storage (CAES) for wind power through modelling and simulation," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 136(C), pages 923-936.
    5. Jiang, Yinghua & Kang, Lixia & Liu, Yongzhong, 2019. "A unified model to optimize configuration of battery energy storage systems with multiple types of batteries," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 176(C), pages 552-560.
    6. Su, Chengguo & Cheng, Chuntian & Wang, Peilin & Shen, Jianjian & Wu, Xinyu, 2019. "Optimization model for long-distance integrated transmission of wind farms and pumped-storage hydropower plants," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 242(C), pages 285-293.
    7. Liu, Shuai & Wei, Li & Wang, Huai, 2020. "Review on reliability of supercapacitors in energy storage applications," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 278(C).
    8. Hunt, Julian David & Zakeri, Behnam & Falchetta, Giacomo & Nascimento, Andreas & Wada, Yoshihide & Riahi, Keywan, 2020. "Mountain Gravity Energy Storage: A new solution for closing the gap between existing short- and long-term storage technologies," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 190(C).
    9. Tafone, Alessio & Ding, Yulong & Li, Yongliang & Xie, Chunping & Romagnoli, Alessandro, 2020. "Levelised Cost of Storage (LCOS) analysis of liquid air energy storage system integrated with Organic Rankine Cycle," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 198(C).
    10. Mohajeri, Nahid & Perera, A.T.D. & Coccolo, Silvia & Mosca, Lucas & Le Guen, Morgane & Scartezzini, Jean-Louis, 2019. "Integrating urban form and distributed energy systems: Assessment of sustainable development scenarios for a Swiss village to 2050," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 143(C), pages 810-826.
    11. Ayotunde A. Adeyemo & Elisabetta Tedeschi, 2023. "Technology Suitability Assessment of Battery Energy Storage System for High-Energy Applications on Offshore Oil and Gas Platforms," Energies, MDPI, vol. 16(18), pages 1-38, September.
    12. Morstyn, Thomas & Chilcott, Martin & McCulloch, Malcolm D., 2019. "Gravity energy storage with suspended weights for abandoned mine shafts," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 239(C), pages 201-206.
    13. Evgeny Nefedov & Seppo Sierla & Valeriy Vyatkin, 2018. "Internet of Energy Approach for Sustainable Use of Electric Vehicles as Energy Storage of Prosumer Buildings," Energies, MDPI, vol. 11(8), pages 1-18, August.
    14. Fonseca, Juan D. & Commenge, Jean-Marc & Camargo, Mauricio & Falk, Laurent & Gil, Iván D., 2021. "Multi-criteria optimization for the design and operation of distributed energy systems considering sustainability dimensions," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 214(C).
    15. Kebede, Abraham Alem & Kalogiannis, Theodoros & Van Mierlo, Joeri & Berecibar, Maitane, 2022. "A comprehensive review of stationary energy storage devices for large scale renewable energy sources grid integration," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 159(C).
    16. Kapila, Sahil & Oni, Abayomi Olufemi & Kumar, Amit, 2017. "The development of techno-economic models for large-scale energy storage systems," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 140(P1), pages 656-672.
    17. Barra, P.H.A. & de Carvalho, W.C. & Menezes, T.S. & Fernandes, R.A.S. & Coury, D.V., 2021. "A review on wind power smoothing using high-power energy storage systems," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 137(C).
    18. Tarkowski, R. & Uliasz-Misiak, B., 2022. "Towards underground hydrogen storage: A review of barriers," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 162(C).
    19. Khaled M. A. Salim & Ruhanita Maelah & Hawa Hishamuddin & Amizawati Mohd Amir & Mohd Nizam Ab Rahman, 2022. "Two Decades of Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment of Solid Oxide Fuel Cells (SOFCs): A Review," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(19), pages 1-18, September.
    20. Kourkoumpas, Dimitrios-Sotirios & Benekos, Georgios & Nikolopoulos, Nikolaos & Karellas, Sotirios & Grammelis, Panagiotis & Kakaras, Emmanouel, 2018. "A review of key environmental and energy performance indicators for the case of renewable energy systems when integrated with storage solutions," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 231(C), pages 380-398.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:appene:v:220:y:2018:i:c:p:496-513. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/405891/description#description .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.