Exporting matrix of all processes in a database

Question

I have uploaded a database (US LCI) into openLCA.

I am looking to download a matrix with ALL of the technical (and environmental) process coefficients.  For example, in SimaPro, there is an option called "Export as Matrix" which yields a square A matrix (processes in rows and columns and their inter-process flows as coefficients - a very sparse matrix) and the B matrix of environmental flows per functional unit.

In example, for the current US LCI this would be like a 1000x1000 technical matrix and a 1000x2500 B matrix.

I have looked at the various export options, but none of them seem to result in these.  

For example if I make a product system (which starts with an assumed existing process) the exported matrices are a subset of the overall processes in the database (about 300 of them).

Similarly, I have found the options that will export the python-like .npz files but they are not what I would expect either.

So - is there an option to export the entire database information?

Answer 1

Maybe an answer that is more on a conceptual level fits here: openLCA does not provide premodeled systems in a database, unlike SimaPro or Brightway for example. Thus there are no matrices of premodeled life cycle systems in the database to export. You create life cycle models in openLCA by making product systems, each is one life cycle model, and has an A and B matrix which can can be exported (check the manual for details). With USLCI, there are many separate "islands" of processes that are independent from each other. As a result, a product system you create typically does not contain all processes in the database (unlike ecoinvent or exiobase e.g., where almost all processes are used in every product system, but to a different degree which leads to different results per system). 

You can export the entire database tables from openLCA though; 

select * from tbl_processes

gives you all the processes in the database for example (executed e.g. in the sql window in openLCA).

Hth, Andreas