Resolving lacking data in ecoinvent
Posted: 04 Aug 2017 21:15
Dear forum,
I was assigned to prepare an EPD using openLCA and ecoinvent (I'm using v.3.3) database. I am aware of the provisions of EN 15804 and my question is related to the cut-off data limitations. One of the components I am modelling is a mix of multiple chemical substances our client imports from other manufacturers and for some of them the composition and manufacturing processes are confidential, i.e. we rely on information from ecoinvent. However, ecoinvent provides very little directly relevant data on these substances. For some cases I have found the primary chemical compound from which our substances are derivatives but they do not fully describe the ingredient in our product. Excluding these substances from the model due to insufficient data would lead to exceeded cut-off threshold (more than 5% of the mass of the whole product is excluded).
I would be grateful, if you share your experience or if you have any suggestions how to resolve this issue. I realize that the database does not cover all available chemical substances, but still the limitation of EN 15804 must be met.
Kind regards,
Yana
I was assigned to prepare an EPD using openLCA and ecoinvent (I'm using v.3.3) database. I am aware of the provisions of EN 15804 and my question is related to the cut-off data limitations. One of the components I am modelling is a mix of multiple chemical substances our client imports from other manufacturers and for some of them the composition and manufacturing processes are confidential, i.e. we rely on information from ecoinvent. However, ecoinvent provides very little directly relevant data on these substances. For some cases I have found the primary chemical compound from which our substances are derivatives but they do not fully describe the ingredient in our product. Excluding these substances from the model due to insufficient data would lead to exceeded cut-off threshold (more than 5% of the mass of the whole product is excluded).
I would be grateful, if you share your experience or if you have any suggestions how to resolve this issue. I realize that the database does not cover all available chemical substances, but still the limitation of EN 15804 must be met.
Kind regards,
Yana