Wrong NH₃/NOx CFs in ReCiPe 2016 Midpoint (H) Terrestrial acidification – openLCA LCIA Methods 2.8.0?

Question

Hello,

While reviewing the country-specific characterization factors (CFs) for terrestrial acidification in openLCA LCIA Methods 2.8.0 (ReCiPe 2016 Midpoint H), I found what appears to be a systematic column swap between NH₃ and NOₓ values across all countries where regionalized flows exist.

When comparing the values in openLCA against the official sources — RIVM Report 2016-0104 (Table S3.1) and the supplementary file ReCiPe2016_Country factors_v1.1, available at https://www.rivm.nl/en/life-cycle-assessment-lca/downloads — the following pattern emerges consistently:

- The CF assigned to "Ammonia, XX" in openLCA matches the official NOx value for that country (not the NH₃ value).

- The CF assigned to "Nitrogen oxides, XX" in openLCA matches the official NH₃ value for that country (not the NOx value).

Some examples to illustrate:

Ammonia:

Country	Official NH₃ CF	openLCA "Ammonia" CF	Official NOx CF
Chile	2.41	0.31	0.31
USA	5.36	0.6	0.6
Brazil	1.67	0.29	0.29
Canada	6.39	0.85	0.85
Japan	1.62	0.29	0.29

All values are in kg SO₂ eq/kg.

The pattern is perfectly consistent: the NH₃ and NOx columns appear to have been swapped during data loading. Sulfur dioxide values, on the other hand, appear to be correctly implemented.

Before reporting this as a confirmed bug, I would like to ask: is there a methodological justification for these values in openLCA LCIA Methods 2.8.0, or is this indeed an implementation error?

Thank you in advance.

Answer 1

Hi,

Thank you for your detailed feedback. This looks indeed like an implementation error. We’ll address it in the next update release of the method package.

We appreciate you bringing this to our attention.

Best regards,

Sarah

Comments

Hi Sarah,

Thank you for the confirmation. I'm glad the cross-check with the official RIVM sources was useful to pinpoint the issue clearly.

Looking forward to the fix in the next release.

Best regards,
Fernando