Evaluation of the Environmental Benefit of an Eco-design Strategy on the Life Cycle Assessment of a Permanent Magnet Synchronous High-speed Electric Motor

The purpose of this study is to assess the environmental impacts of a Permanent Magnet Synchronous high-speed electric Motor (PMSM) and quantify the environmental savings resulting from the adoption of an eco-design strategy. To this end, a PMSM was identified as a baseline for the study, and a cradle-to-grave environmental life cycle assessment was performed based on primary data. The environmental impacts of the baseline PMSM were compared to those of its lightweighted version, which was obtained by adopting an eco-design strategy focused on aluminum content reduction. Other eco-design strategies were investigated to evaluate additional savings. The results obtained for the baseline PMSM reveal that the procurement and processing of raw materials contribute the most to all impact categories. The results obtained for the lightweighted PMSM reveal that, while reducing the aluminum content does not significantly lower the impacts in any of the most relevant impact categories, reducing the copper content would significantly reduce the use of mineral and metal resources. Lastly, eco-design strategies that focus on permanent magnets would significantly reduce climate change.