LCA can currently be performed 2 ways: 1) Process-based or 2) economic input-output based.
Openlca import impact assessment methods free#
A free economic input-output LCA is available via the Green Design Institute at Carnegie Mellon. Alternative (other-than-process-based) methods of calculating net product impact can provide quick, cost effective, and yet comprehensive life-cycle assessments.
Please consider using an economic input-output model. You can either deal with a free but limited subset of the data and invest time, or invest money, perhaps in a simpler tool. TL DR: There's a reason LCA tools cost money, and it's because it requires a lot of time and effort to generate the underlying data. One sidenote is that assessing the social impacts of products/processes is something that's still very much in basic research. It's aimed at designers and iteration, so it might not be ideal. That won't fulfill the 'easy' part right away, but some Python or Excel macros would likely make it pretty functional for everyday use.Īn alternative might be something like Sustainable Minds, which is not free, but is designed to be very easy to use. That being said, some of the raw data is free - the US LCI database is, and can be combined with LCIA tools like ReCiPe in Excel to get 'interpretable' impacts like GHG emissions. That's why the products are expensive, often have high learning curves, and why people take multiple semester course sequences to learn about LCA. These factors merit a need for time investment to generate the data, standardize it, and develop tools for using it. The FEDEFL will play a critical role in enabling interoperability between life cycle datasets created by federal agencies and can also serve as a standard for elementary flows for a broader community.One if the issues with LCA is that it's very data intensive, and that generic products/processes can be subject to a lot of uncertainty. Related files and resources including the FEDEFL on the Federal LCA Commons, the fedelemflowlist package and associated Wiki, and documentation of usage of the mapping files in openLCA software, are briefly described and links are provided. A system for updating the FEDEFL has been developed through GitHub and is described in Future Work and Contributing. Flows are anticipated to be regularly added to the FEDEFL to cover emerging life cycle data needs, and its functionality periodically enhanced as LCA modeling needs and capabilities continue to evolve. A brief summary of the resulting v1.0 of the FEDEFL is provided in a Summary section, followed by general and flow class specific Recommendations for Use. fedelemflowlist also provides the FEDEFL and mappings to Python users and creates a version of the list for use in openLCA software. It includes the definition of flow classes and flow components - flowables, contexts, and units - and describes the assembly of the components into a flow list using a new Python package, fedelemflowlist. An Approach section describes the steps toward creating the FEDEFL and mapping files to convert flows from other sources to FEDEFL flows. Introduction and Background sections describe relevant history of elementary flows in life cycle data, the purpose of a FEDEFL, and a technical background on elementary flows. This report describes the development of a standardized elementary flow list (FEDEFL) for the Federal LCA Commons. They enable the development of life cycle inventories and the subsequent application of life cycle impact assessment methods to model potential impacts associated with product systems. Elementary flows are a foundational component of the life cycle assessment data model, used to represent resources and emissions that are used or released in human and industrial activities.
0 kommentar(er)
