Älfred Rufer
Professor, STI - Industrial Electronics Laboratory, Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL)
Speaker
Alfred
Rufer Research activities in
Alfred Rufer’s lab focus on two key areas: power
converters, especially in the field of asymmetric or hybrid topologies, and on
supercapacitive energy storage, particularly alternative energy storage devices
which have reduced aging phenomena or those which are easier to recycle than
classical batteries.
Alfred Rufer received
his MS degree from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL),
Lausanne, Switzerland, in 1976. In 1978, he joined BBC/ABB where he was
involved in the fields of power electronics and control. In 1993, he became an
Assistant Professor at EPFL and full Professor and Head, Industrial Electronics
Laboratory in 1996.
Alfred Rufer has
authored or co-authored more than 150 publications on power
electronics and applications, and holds several patents. In 2006 Alfred Rufer was elected as a Fellow of the Institute of Electrical
and Electronics Engineers.
Presentation Summary
A range of alternative transport technologies
from the compressed air car, to the electric engine offer partial substitutes
to the traditional combustion engine. However, no single technology or
technologies as yet offer a total solution to replacing the petrol engine.
Zero emission electric cars and compressed air cars
have issues with the speed of charging or refill, battery degradation, life cycles and
recycling, together with their storage capacity.
The
costs of raw materials, as well as the cost of associated infrastructure are
additional criteria. These issues continue to undermine
widespread adoption of the technologies.
