Usage of flows
Posted: 18 Sep 2012 12:24
Hi guys,
I am doing a LCA on a small-scale wind turbine but I have encountered one or two problems and i was wandering if anyone can help.
I have modeled the system separately for its different materials,i.e Aluminum, Copper..etc and then want to use the collective results as the overall impact. It should be fairly straight forward, but some things just don't seem to work.
Questions
- When you use a process like 'Secondary Aluminum shape casted' does it include the flows that make up for example "Primary Aluminium Ingot"? (Because the aluminium I will be using for my turbine is already formed, is it correct to use the "Secondary aluminium shape casted" as the input for my processes?)
- I have built the system for aluminum which is currently working. The system is very similar to the 'Beer Can example' that was done in OpenLCA, except the primary aluminum ingot input has been changed to Secondary Aluminum shape casted. When i try to use this same logic for copper it doesnt seem to work correctly. The problem is that when using an input flow such as 'Copper wire' it seems like the "Copper wire" process has outputs but no inputs! This is different when using "Secondary Aluminum shape casted" instead of copper wire. For the Secondary Aluminum shape casted process inputs are present.
I would greatly appreciate some help and I am looking forward to a response.
Wouter van Rooyen, (Unviversity of Stellenbosch)
I am doing a LCA on a small-scale wind turbine but I have encountered one or two problems and i was wandering if anyone can help.
I have modeled the system separately for its different materials,i.e Aluminum, Copper..etc and then want to use the collective results as the overall impact. It should be fairly straight forward, but some things just don't seem to work.
Questions
- When you use a process like 'Secondary Aluminum shape casted' does it include the flows that make up for example "Primary Aluminium Ingot"? (Because the aluminium I will be using for my turbine is already formed, is it correct to use the "Secondary aluminium shape casted" as the input for my processes?)
- I have built the system for aluminum which is currently working. The system is very similar to the 'Beer Can example' that was done in OpenLCA, except the primary aluminum ingot input has been changed to Secondary Aluminum shape casted. When i try to use this same logic for copper it doesnt seem to work correctly. The problem is that when using an input flow such as 'Copper wire' it seems like the "Copper wire" process has outputs but no inputs! This is different when using "Secondary Aluminum shape casted" instead of copper wire. For the Secondary Aluminum shape casted process inputs are present.
I would greatly appreciate some help and I am looking forward to a response.
Wouter van Rooyen, (Unviversity of Stellenbosch)