The aim of this thesis is to undertake a life cycle analysis to identify the environmental impact of using graphene to manufacture supercapacitors. It was part of a larger project to develop supercapacitors using graphene in place of activated carbon. The first part of this work focuses on production of graphene in the laboratory. Data were directly measured in different laboratories to perform a comparative life cycle analysis in order to evaluate the environmental performance of several graphene synthesis methods including graphite electrochemical exfoliation, graphite chemical oxidation with subsequent chemical or thermal reduction and chemical vapour deposition. One electrochemical exfoliation technique, one chemical oxidation followed by two different reduction routes were selected on the base of their environmental performance and their measured specific capacitance and used as electrode materials for supercapacitors. The second part of the thesis is a comparative life cycle assessment involving three supercapacitors having the electrodes made of graphene synthesised via the three shortlisted production routes and one state of the art activated carbon based supercapacitor commercially available. A commercial-scale graphene production process is simulated using a process simulation tool in order to minimise the process inefficiencies inherent to laboratory processes and to compare it with a commercial-scale activated carbon production process. The results showed a large reduction of the graphene environmental impact of around 50% in most of the environmental impact categories analysed but also proved that the activated carbon supercapacitor is currently the technology with the lowest impact for all categories. They also showed that graphene production needs more research to improve its efficiency and efficacy as it is the operation with the highest environmental impact in the supercapacitor manufacturing for most of the analysed impact categories. In the third part of this study the use-phase and end-of-life of supercapacitors is evaluated in which the supercapacitors are used to power a car door mirror and are finally recycled. The results showed that over the lifetime of a vehicle (150,000 km), the graphene based supercapacitors have a lower impact (10% less) during the use-phase as they are lighter. The recycling process is also simulated to be scaled up to a commercial-scale with minimised heat losses for both graphene and activated carbon based supercapacitors. Recycling proved to be the key to reduce the environmental impact of the graphene supercapacitor. As graphene proved to be the most problematic material for the environment and the recycled graphene proved to be of a quality similar to pristine material, its recovery generates an environmental credit that is 90% of the production burden for all categories by displacing the production of new graphene for polymer reinforcement applications. Sensitivity analysis is performed and various scenarios generated to evaluate potential variations in specific capacitance of all active materials and subsequently the impact of these variations on the manufacture of supercapacitors. The results are normalised and weighted according to the latest EU requirements. Aggregating the weighted results proved that the activated carbon and the graphene based supercapacitors could have similar impacts. This is a very encouraging result considering that the graphene synthesis process is still at its infancy while the activated carbon production is a well-established industrial process. When a more efficient graphene production can be industrialised, graphene supercapacitors will have the potential to become the future technology with the lowest environmental impact.

In recent years there has been an increased demand for integration of renewable energy into the electricity grid. This has increased research into power converter solutions required to integrate renewable technology into the electricity supply. One such converter is a Cascaded H-Bridge (CHB) Multilevel Converter. Operation of such a topology requires strict control of power flow to ensure that energy is distributed equally across the converters energy storage components. For operation at high power levels, advanced modulation methods may be required to ensure that losses due to non-ideal semiconductor switching are minimised, whilst not compromising the quality of the voltage waveform being produced by the converter. This thesis presents several low switching frequency modulation methods based on Selective Harmonic Elimination (SHE) in order to address these two operational issues. The methods presented involve manipulating the H-Bridge cell voltages of the CHB converter to control power flow. Simulated results are supported by experimental verification from a seven level, single phase CHB converter.

As the deployment of renewable generation increases in the worldwide electrical grids, the development of distributed energy storage becomes more and more of an essential requirement. Energy storage devices connected at Medium Voltage allows for much higher powered deployments and this Ph.D. will focus on the power converter used to interface the energy storage device to the electrical grid. Multi-level converters can be used to provide this interface without huge filtering requirements or the need of a Low Frequency step up transformer. However traditional Multi-level converter topologies require a large number of electrolytic capacitors, reducing the reliability and increasing the cost. Multi-level converters constructed from a Cycloconverter Topology do not require any additional electrolytic capacitors, however the High Frequency transformer, used to provide isolation has to be considerably larger. This Ph.D. will investigate a novel hybrid converter topology to provide an interface between an energy storage device, such as a super-capacitor or battery, to the Medium Voltage grid, designed for high reliability and power density. This topology is called The Hybrid Cycloconverter Topology and is based on a Cycloconverter Topology connected to an auxiliary 3-Phase VSI. A comprehensive simulation study is carried out to investigate the semiconductor losses of this novel converter topology and compared against two alternative topologies. An experimental converter is constructed to validate the theory of operation and to justify its effectiveness.

Voltage source inverter (VSI) is the traditional power converter used to provide variable voltage and frequency from a fixed voltage supply for adjustable speed drive and many other applications. However, the maximum ac output voltage that can be synthesized by a VSI is limited to the available dc-link voltage. With its unique structure, the Z-source inverter can utilise shoot-through states to boost the output voltage and provides an attractive single-stage dc-ac conversion that is able to buck and boost the voltage. For applications with a variable input voltage, this inverter is a very competitive topology. The same concept can equally be extended to the two-stage matrix converter, where a single Z-source network is inserted in its virtual dc-link. The topology formed is, thus, quite straightforward. Its modulation is, however, non-trivial if advantages like voltage buck-boost flexibility, minimum commutation count, ease of implementation, and sinusoidal input and output quantities are to be attained simultaneously. This thesis presents two novel space vector modulation methods for controlling a three-level Z-source neutral point clamped VSI to enable the use of a boost function. The second of the two space vector modulation methods is then adopted and applied to a three-level, two-stage matrix converter with a Z-source network inserted in its virtual dc-link to increase the voltage transfer ratio beyond the intrinsic 86.6\% limit. Simulation results are supported by experimental verification from two laboratory prototype converters.

3D electromagnetic modelling and simulation of various Printed Circuit Board (PCB) components is an important technique for characterizing the Signal Integrity (SI) and Electromagnetic Compatibility (EMC) issues present in a PCB. However, due to limited computational resource and the complexity of the integrated circuits, it is currently not possible to fully model a complete PCB system with 3D electromagnetic solvers. An effort has been made to fully model the PCB with all its components and their S-parameters has been derived so as to integrate these S-parameters in 1D, 2D static or quasi-static field solver or circuit solver tool. The novelty of this thesis is the development and verification of active circuit such as Input and Output buffers and passive channel components such as interconnects, via and connectors and deriving their S-parameters in order to model and characterize the complete PCB using 3D full field solver based on Transmission Line Matrix modelling (TLM) method. An integration of Input/Output (I/O) port in the 3D full field modelling method allows for modelling of the complete PCB system without being computationally expensive. This thesis presents a method for integration of Input/Output port in the 3D time domain modelling environment. Several software tools are available in the market which can characterize these PCBs in the frequency as well as the time domain using 1D, 2D techniques or using circuit solver such as spice. The work in this thesis looks at extending these 1D and 2D techniques for 3D Electromagnetic solvers in the time domain using the TLM technique for PCB analysis. The modelling technique presented in this thesis is based on in-house developed 3D TLM method along with a developed behavioral Integrated Circuit (IC) – macromodel. The method has been applied to a wide variety of PCB topologies along with a range of IC packages to fully validate the approach. The method has also been applied to show the switching effect arising out of the crosstalk in a logic device apart from modelling various discontinuities of PCB interconnects in the form of S11 and S21 parameters. The proposed novel TLM based technique has been selected based on simplification of its approach, electrical equivalence (rather than complex mathematical functions of Maxwell's electromagnetic theory), time domain analysis for transients in a PCB with an increased accuracy over other available methods in the literature. On the experimental side two, four and six layered PCBs with various interconnect discontinuities such as straight line, right angle, fan-out and via and IC packages such as SOT-23 (DBV), SC-70 (DCK) and SOT-553 (DRL) has been designed and manufactured. The modelling results have been verified with the experimental results of these PCBs and other commercial software such as HSPICE, CST design studio available in the market. While characterizing the SI issues, these modelling results can also help in analyzing conducted and radiated EMC/EMI problems to meet various EMC regulations such as CE, FCC around the world.

Interferometry is used in a wide variety of fields for the instrumentation and analysis of subjects and the environment. When light beams interfere, an interference fringe pattern is generated. Captured widefield interference patterns can be used to determine changes in the optical path length of interfering beams across a 2D area. Two interferometer schemes regularly implemented in modern systems include the homodyne interferometer, where light with the same optical frequency in used to generate static intensity fringe patterns, and the heterodyne interferometer, where light with different optical frequencies are used to generate a fringe pattern that is modulated at a frequency equal to the optical frequency difference (beat frequency). A widefield heterodyne system is not straightforward to bring into practice, however, it does offer some benefits over a comparable homodyne interferometer, such as direct phase interpretation and the suppression of low frequency background light in interferograms. In this thesis, a widefield heterodyne interferometer system is presented. A custom prototype modulated light camera (MLC) chip was used to capture both homodyne and heterodyne fringe patterns. The 32x32 pixel camera is capable of continuously demodulating incident modulated light at frequencies between 100kHz and 17MHz. In the presented system, an error in the interferogram phase was determined to be Δφ = ±0.16radians (~9.1º). Comparisons between homodyne and heterodyne interferograms, captured using the MLC, are also presented. With modifications to the system, an ultrastable widefield heterodyne interferometer system was implemented. The intention of this system was to eliminate the contribution of piston phase to a captured interferogram without the need for common path optics. In contrast to the standard heterodyne setup, the reference signal used in the demodulation process was derived from one of the pixels on-board the MLC, rather than from an external source. This new local reference signal tracks the common changes in the temporal phase detected by all the MLC's pixels, eliminating piston phase and substantially reducing the contributions of unwanted vibrations and microphonics from interferograms. To demonstrate this ultrastable system, it is incorporated into a Mach-Zehnder interferometer, where a vibration is induced onto an object arm mirror (using a mounted speaker) at various frequencies. Stable interferograms are captured with the mirror moving at up to 85mm/s at 62Hz (an optical path length of 220μm, or 350 wavelengths for λ = 633nm), however, this limit was the result of the complex motion in the mirror mount rather than the stability limit of the system. The system is shown to be insensitive to pure piston phase variations equivalent to an object velocity of over 3m/s. As an application of the ultrastable system, a novel interferometer has been developed that captures the widefield fringe patterns generated by interfering two independent light sources, rather than by a single split source. The two separately stabilised HeNe lasers, constructed in the laboratory, produce light with a reasonably stable output frequency. Interfering two of these sources produce a heterodyne interference pattern with an unknown beat frequency. The beat frequency continuously varies because of the variation in the output frequency of each laser, but these stabilised lasers produce a beat frequency that drift by as little as 3MHz over 30 minutes. As the ultrastable system tracks changes in the temporal phase and instantaneous frequency of an incident fringe pattern, it can be used to track the variations in the modulation frequency generated by the fluctuations in the two separate lasers. The separation between the two lasers with regards to the images presented was about 35cm, but they can be separated by much larger amounts.

This research deals with optimising a supercapacitor-battery hybrid energy storage system (SB-HESS) to reduce the implementation cost for solar energy applications using the Genetic Algorithm (GA) and the Support Vector Machine (SVM). The integration of a supercapacitor into a battery energy storage system for solar applications is proven to prolong the battery lifespan. Furthermore, the reliability of the system was optimised using a GA within the Taguchi technique in the supercapacitor fabrication process. This is important to reduce the spread in tolerance of supercapacitors values (i.e. capacitance and Equivalent Series Resistance (ESR)) which affect system performance. One of the more important results obtained in this project is the net present cost (NPC) of the Supercapacitor-battery hybrid energy storage system is 7.51% lower than the conventional battery only system over a 20-years project lifetime. This NPC takes into account of components initial capital cost, replacement cost, maintenance and operational cost. The number of batteries is reduced from 40 (conventional – battery only system) to 24 (SB-HESS) with the inclusion of supercapacitors in the system. This leads to reduction cost in the implemented hybrid energy storage system. A greener renewable energy system is achievable as the number of battery is reduced significantly. An optimised combination of the number of components for renewable energy system is also found. The number of batteries is sized, based on the average power output instead of catering to the peak power burst as in a conventional battery only system. This allows for the reduction in the number of batteries as the peak power is catered for by the presence of the supercapacitor. Subsequent efforts have been focused on the energy management system which is coupled with a supervised learning machine – SVM, switches and sensors are used to forecast the load demand beforehand. This load predictive-energy management system is implemented on a lab-scaled hybrid energy storage system prototype. Results obtained also show that this load predictive system allows for accurate load classification and prediction. The supercapacitor in the hybrid energy storage system is able to switch on to cater for peak power without delay. This is crucial in maintaining an optimised battery depth-of-discharge (DOD) in order to reduce the rate of battery damage thru a degradation mechanism which is caused from particular stress factors (especially sulphation on the battery electrode and electrolyte stratification).

In the coming decades, electrical energy networks will gradually change from a traditional passive network into an active bidirectional one using concepts such as these associated with the smart grid. Power electronics will play an important role in these changes. The inherent ability to control power flow and respond to highly dynamic network will be vital. Modular power electronics structures which can be reconfigured for a variety of applications promote economies of scale and technical advantages such as redundancy. The control of the energy flow through these converters has been much researched over the last 20 years. This thesis presents novel control concepts for such a structure, focusing mainly on the control of a Cascaded H-Bridge converter, configured to function as a solid state substation. The work considers the derivation and application of Dead Beat and Model Predictive controllers for this application and scrutinises the technical advantages and potential application issues of these methodologies. Moreover an improvement to the standard Model Predictive Control algorithm that include an intrinsic modulation scheme inside the controller and named Modulated Model Predictive Control is introduced. Detailed technical work is supported by Matlab/Simulink model based simulations and validated by experimental work on two converter platforms, considering both ideal and non-ideal electrical network conditions.

The work in this thesis focuses on the characterization, modeling and emulation of both the supercapacitor and the new supercapattery energy storage device. The characterization involves the selection of dynamic models and experimental methodologies to derive model parameters. The characterizing processes focus on predicting short-term device dynamics, energy retention (self-discharging) and losses and round-trip efficiency. A methodology involving a pulse current method is applied for the first time to identify a model parameter to give fast device dynamic characteristics and a new constant power cycling method is used for evaluating round-trip efficiency. Experimental results are shown for a number of supercapacitor and supercapattery devices and good results are obtained. The derived models from the characterization results are implemented into the emulator system and the emulator system is used to mimic the dynamic characteristics of a scaled-up 1kW supercapattery device. The thesis also addresses voltage equalizing circuits and reports a study that investigates efficiency, a cell voltage deviation and voltage equalizing time for different control methods.

In the past 2 decades the increasing intensive use of non-linear loads has resulted in a substantial reduction of power quality in electric power systems. Current harmonics produced by non-linear loads, such as power electronic converters and electrical drives cause a number of problems in power distribution networks. In more recent years this problem has affected also smaller distribution grids like for example in aircrafts, due to the so called "more electric aircraft" trend, consisting in the replacement of most of hydraulic/pneumatic actuators with electronically controlled electromechanical devices. Electrically powered actuation is becoming more attractive due to technology advances in bespoke equipment among which electrical motors, magnetic materials, electronic control circuits and power devices. Power electronics converters are required to control electrical power and are necessary for example for actuator motor drives and to convert variable frequency (360-800Hz) in the next generation of civil aircraft to a constant frequency supply bus for various loads or to a DC supply bus. Although the presence of electrically powered equipment is desirable for weight and fuel cost reduction, the increase of electrical systems on board, and above all the presence of power electronic subsystems, brings severe challenges to aircraft power system distribution interns of power quality. The aim of this research project is to investigate Shunt Active Filter (SAF) solutions to improve the quality of power of on-board grids. In particular advanced control strategies will be studied in order to enhance the SAFs' operation in maintaining high power quality in these particular power networks. Anyway, only harmonics compensation will be addressed, as considered SAF are not intended to alleviate other power quality potential issues such as current unbalance between phases, reactive power compensation. This research project presents the specific application of a wide-band current control method based on Iterative Learning Control (ILC) for aircraft power networks, and introduces enhanced design strategies to increase compensation accuracy and improve the robustness of the SAF control system by using a P-type ILC controller. Due to the fact that a variable supply frequency (360Hz - 800Hz) is adopted in the power networks of newly released aircrafts, this research project presents a close investigation of the P-type ILC current controlled SAF system in such application (together with the standard fixed 400Hz supply), and hence identifies suitable modifications for the SAF system control to provide an effective and accurate current harmonic cancellation during the supply frequency variation. Considering both simulation and experimental results, it can be concluded that the proposed SAF control proved to be very effective for accurate reduction of current harmonics on aircraft power grids with both fixed and variable supply frequency, using ordinary equipment and reasonable switching frequency and also ensuring good dynamics in transient conditions.