The LCIA methods in the exiobase v3.9.4 for openLCA were updated. The originally implemented EF 3.1 LCIA Method by GreenDelta has gone through some corrections and the IPCC GWP100 implementation by the EXIOBASE team has been newly added. It is recommended to delete the old LCIA Methods of your database and import the new methods. Instructions are given at the end of the blog post.
New changes in LCIA Methods
Specifically, the following changes were made:
- EF 3.1 characterisation factors for N2O emissions were corrected to correspond to the factors of “nitrous oxide“ from the EF 3.1 method (changes made to climate change and human toxicity, non-cancer impact categories).
- EXIOBASE IPCC GWP100 method was added to the database, incorporating the characterisation factors from Wood, Rasul & Stadler: “A Global Dataset of Scope 1–3 Spend-Based GHG Emission Factors from EXIOBASE“.
- Characterisation factors for Land use impact category were based on “Land occupation“ flows rather than “Land transformation“ flows, aligning with the methodology of EXIOBASE.
The Climate Change emission factors of the EF 3.1 implementation by GreenDelta and the implementation of the IPCC GWP100 method by EXIOBASE are presented in Table 1. The implementation of the EF 3.1 method is based entirely on the EF characterisation factors, while the EXIOBASE’s implementation of the IPCC is reported to be based on the IPCC AR6 characterisation factors (a few deviations from AR6 GWP values were found). The main differences in the two methods are as follows:
- HFC and PFC are set to 0 in the default EF 3.1 implementation, as inclusion of their CFs calculated based on the EF 3.1 method (313 kg CO2 eq. and 10000 kg CO2 eq. for HFC and PFC, respectively) led to a significant overestimation of results. EXIOBASE’s implementation uses a value of 1 kg CO2 eq. for both HFC and PFC.
- Methane in EXIOBASE’s implementation uses the value of 27.2 kg CO2 eq. for emissions from agriculture, and waste, while the value of 27.9 kg CO2 eq. is used for methane originating from combustion. EF 3.1 implementation uses the value of 29.8 kg CO2 eq. for all methane emissions, as they are all mapped to fossil methane, since the biological origin cannot be unambiguously assumed.
- Biogenic carbon in EXIOBASE’s implementation has a CF of 0 for biogenic CO2 originating from combustion, while biogenic CO2 originating from waste has a CF of 1. In the EF3.1 implementation, biogenic CO2 has a CF of 1.
Table 1: Characterisation factors for Climate Change impact category in EF 3.1 method and EXIOBASE IPCC GWP100 method.
|
Flow name |
EF3.1 method CF, CC |
EXIOBASE IPCC GWP100 CF |
|
CH4 – agriculture – air |
29.8 |
27.2 |
|
CH4 – combustion – air |
29.8 |
27.9 |
|
CH4 – non combustion – Extraction/production of (natural) gas – air |
29.8 |
29.8 |
|
CH4 – non combustion – Extraction/production of crude oil – air |
29.8 |
29.8 |
|
CH4 – non combustion – Mining of antracite – air |
29.8 |
29.8 |
|
CH4 – non combustion – Mining of bituminous coal – air |
29.8 |
29.8 |
|
CH4 – non combustion – Mining of coking coal – air |
29.8 |
29.8 |
|
CH4 – non combustion – Mining of lignite (brown coal) – air |
29.8 |
29.8 |
|
CH4 – non combustion – Mining of sub-bituminous coal – air |
29.8 |
29.8 |
|
CH4 – non combustion – Oil refinery – air |
29.8 |
29.8 |
|
CH4 – waste – air |
29.8 |
27.2 |
|
CO2 – agriculture – peat decay – air |
1 |
1 |
|
CO2 – combustion – air |
1 |
1 |
|
CO2 – non combustion – Cement production – air |
1 |
1 |
|
CO2 – non combustion – Lime production – air |
1 |
1 |
|
CO2 – waste – biogenic – air |
1 |
1 |
|
CO2 – waste – fossil – air |
1 |
1 |
|
CO2_bio – combustion – air |
1 |
0 |
|
HFC – air |
0 |
1 |
|
N2O – agriculture – air |
273 |
273 |
|
N2O – combustion – air |
273 |
273 |
|
PFC – air |
0 |
1 |
|
SF6 – air |
25200 |
25200 |
How to update your database
You can get the new update through openLCA Nexus: https://nexus.openlca.org/database/exiobase
We recommend to update your workspace with the new database > export the new LCIA Methods > go to your exiobase database > delete the method package > import the new LCIA Methods.