Sustainable Design of Active Energy Buffers through Multi-Objective Optimization

Energy buffer capacitors are an important component in power electronic circuits, being needed in single-phase ac-to-dc and dc-to-ac converters to balance the instantaneous power mismatch between the dc and the ac side. Energy buffers also find application in motor drives and pulsed power electronics systems where very high instantaneous power is needed. Active energy buffer capacitors offer better energy utilization density and smaller size than traditional passive capacitors, but their industry adoptions are limited by their higher cost, higher component count, and lower energy efficiency. Moreover, with a growing push for sustainable power electronic converter design, the environmental impact associated with active energy buffers also needs to be considered. This paper explores and develops a theoretical framework for assessing the sustainable design of active energy buffers, by jointly considering the energy buffering ratio of active energy buffer technologies along with their lifetime environmental impact in terms of CO₂ emissions as the new incentive to select the optimal design topology for such energy buffers. This sustainable design optimization framework can also be easily extended to other power electronic circuits, thus allowing for sustainable design optimization practices.