Page 1 of 1

LCIA methods for ELCD?

Posted: 08 Mar 2013 14:21
by ELCD_user
Hello all
I am trying to use openLCA for teaching and research. I managed to import the ELCD v3 core database into openLCA which is great. I am now looking for an LCIA method. There is a large methods database for download here:
http://lct.jrc.ec.europa.eu/pdf-directo ... 2.zip/view
Can this be read into openLCA too? I'd be happy with a simple method such as IPCC2007 for a start. Can I make my own method? Many thanks for your help.

Dr Ludwig Gredmaier
School of Engineering and the Environment
University of Southampton
Southampton SO17 1BJ
Tel: 023 80 598363
Email: lg1e08@soton.ac.uk
http://www.valorgas.soton.ac.uk

Re: LCIA methods for ELCD?

Posted: 10 Mar 2013 20:18
by gebbissimo1
Dear Dr Ludwig Gredmaier,

=== LCIA methods
You can download the collection of LCIA methods from the ecoinvent centre here: http://www.openlca.org/download_page#LCIA_methods
I believe every major LCIA method is included, IPCC 2007 certainly is. Before the import you will currently have to create a new unit group and flow property , see http://openlca.org/forum/viewtopic.php? ... =10#p18095

=== Own methods
Sure you can also create your own method.
> Right Click on LCIA methods in the navigation bar > create a new LCIA method
> Create impact categories and respective LCIA factors of your choice.

Hope that helps
Christian Gebbe

Re: LCIA methods for ELCD?

Posted: 11 Mar 2013 12:32
by ELCD_user
Many thanks Chris for replying. I am with the ELCD database and you are suggesting to use the ecoInvent methods for download at http://www.openlca.org/download_page Should I not be using an ILCD method rather than an ecoInvent method?
Regards
Ludwig

Re: LCIA methods for ELCD?

Posted: 12 Mar 2013 13:48
by gebbissimo1
I'm not at all an expert, but in my impression you have to differentiate a bit between process databases (such as ELCD, NREL, ecoinvent) and LCIA methods. To my understanding...

- ILCD vs. ecospold are just formats, maybe comparable to jpg and gif
- openLCA can import both formats
- the ELCD database is published in ILCD format, correct
- ecoinvent is a database (not a format), published in ecospold format
- Most (or all?) LCIA methods do not intrinsically belong to any database. IPCC 2007 was developed by the IPCC, CML by the Leiden university and so on. You probably could download the methods from their website individually, too.
- Concluding, there is no such thing as "ecoinvent methods". It is just that the ecoinvent database, apart from their process data, also incorporates a lot of LCIA methods. And they were so nice to publish their collection of LCIA methods for free in ecospold format.

I'm not entirely sure what the ILCD methods are. I guess they are the same collection I pointed you to, just published in the ILCD instead of Ecospold format. But, as said above, it doesn't matter in which format you import them. Since I know that the import of the LCIA methods published on openlca.org works fine with the current v129 version, I would advise you to import this package.

The only thing you might want to manually check, is that the flow names usd in the ELCD database match the flow names used by the impact methods.

Re: LCIA methods for ELCD?

Posted: 13 Mar 2013 15:53
by ELCD_user
Very much appreciate your replies Chris. Say we go for a simple one such as the IPCC2007 method, which measures GWP of a product. For openLCA the IPCC2007 method is at http://www.openlca.org/download_page together with other ecoInvent methods, zipped up in a 3.3 MB sized file named
impact-methods.zip. Let’s extract the IPCC2007 method from this bundle, import it into openLCA, and look at (a) the number of listed
greenhouse gases and (b)the GWP attached to the gases under the 100a timescale. Then let’s do the same in SimaPro 7.3 with the IPCC2007 method in version 1.02. We find that
1) SimaPro’s IPCC2007 v1.02 ecoInvent method contains a total of 94 greenhouse gases together with their GWPs.
2) openLCA’s IPCC2007 ecoInvent method contains a total of only 35 greenhouse gases together with their GWPs.
3) When we compare the GWPs in the two software packages then we find that GWPs are identical in most cases, but not all:
- Methane, dichlorofluoro-, HCFC-21 has a GWP of 151 in SimaPro and 210 in openLCA.
- Methane, chlorotrifluoro-, CFC-13 has a GWP of 14400 in SimaPro and 14000 in openLCA.
- Methane biogenic has a GWP of 22 in SimaPro and 25 in openLCA.
- Chloroform has a GWP of 31 in SimaPro and 30 in openLCA.
There is no single IPCC2007 method in the ELCD/ILCD methods dataset, so I could not compare their values. With the ELCD core database I would prefer an ELCD/ILCD impact method going with it, but I don’t have one yet. What this shows that even with the 'same' method, there is various implementations out there.
Best regards
Ludwig