Available on Nexus since January 2025 and now updated to version 1.5.0, HiQLCD is a Chinese life cycle inventory database that provides essential background data for materials, energy, manufacturing, and support services to facilitate LCAs, PCFs, and EPDs. Because the vast majority of products incorporate Chinese supply chains, HiQLCD delivers the critical LCI data needed to ensure credible and complete studies.
Database update
HiQLCD v.1.5.0 brings quite some updates:
- Addition of 12,000 datasets and revision of existing records
Table 1 – Selected sector coverage and developments in HiQLCD 1.5.0 (more on https://carbonx.hiq.earth/databases/hiqlcd)
| Sector | Background data and selected developments |
| Electricity and heat | Generation, supply, selected voltage levels, grid backgrounds and facilities, including coal, gas, hydropower, wind, nuclear and photovoltaic technologies. |
| Steel and non-ferrous metals | Mineral and auxiliary inputs, grades, product forms and processing. Updated records include direct reduced iron, endless-strip-production hot-rolled coil, seamless tubes and selected metal extraction, refining and recovery routes. |
| Coal and iron ore | Selected mining, preparation, beneficiation and supply backgrounds, with differences in resource properties and technologies. |
| Oil and gas | Selected extraction, refining and supply activities, including technical and regional supply differences. |
| Chemicals | More than 150 categories added or improved, including basic chemicals, industrial gases, polymers and auxiliaries. Sulphuric acid and liquid oxygen data have been updated. |
| Photovoltaics | Silicon materials, wafers, specified cell and module configurations and selected components and auxiliaries. Coverage depends on the system model. |
| Electrical equipment | More than 35 added equipment categories, including towers, conductors, transformers, circuit breakers, insulators, fittings, capacitors and meters. |
| Water services and transport | Water treatment and supply, urban and rural sewer construction and transport services. New road-freight records primarily cover petrol-fuelled truck classes and China III to VI emission standards. |
| Waste treatment and recycling | Municipal waste, wastewater, sludge and selected industrial streams. Selected glass, copper, rubber and aluminium recovery chains are expanded; municipal waste and domestic wastewater include city-level records. |
- Updates of selected LCIA characterization factors
- New NCM battery case study to represent practical application in openLCA
- New Enterprise License for up to five users within the same company
Webinar
Users who want to learn more are welcome to join our dedicated webinar happening on December 2nd at 10 AM CET / 5 PM China Time. Registrations are open here.
To acquire the database, please visit openLCA Nexus.