ecoinvent v3.11 based project update to ecoinvent v3.12

Question

I have a project created with ecoinvent 3.11 that I want to update to ecoinvent 3.12. I tried following the guide at https://nexus.openlca.org/database/ecoinvent, but this guide seems outdated; the options offered in my version of OpenLCA are not the same. Similarly, the webinar at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oQszxPxqTHo doesn't seem to provide answers for updating older projects. I understand that I need to import my old project into an ecoinvent 3.12 database, but I can't manage, regardless of (1) how I export my project (with or without default supplier) and (2) the option I select for the import (never update an existing dataset / update datasets with new versions / overwrite all existing datasets), to get my new project with all the ecoinvent supplier processes I chose at the time, but now in version 3.12. How can I do this?

Answer 1

Can you tell which options are not the same and which openLCA version you are using? There might be some updates of naming needed, but the guideline is in principle independent of the version. openLCA uses JSON as the exchange format for data sets (not full databases, which are stored in zolca format). Maybe in older version it was called JSON-LD export and now it is called JSON package export. But for openLCA you need in principle only zolca for full databases and JSON for process datasets or database elements like locations, flows, processes etc. This has not changed over the years and is always the same.

You can export all your own processes in JSON and re-import them into the new ecoinvent version. The only disadvantage at the moment is that after import, you have to reselect the provider from the ecoinvent database in your own processes. This will be done automatically in the future, since our IT is working on an automatic updater. But for the moment, you still have to select the new provider from 3.12 once in your own models/processes.

The screenshots need some updates, this is true. But the general procedure is the same. For the import select "never update an existing dataset". For processes it should not matter what you select here, since you only import processes that are from yourself and that do not belong to ecoinvent 3.12, so no processes will be overwritten anyway. The reason why you should select "never update an existing dataset" is that locations or flows that are inside your own processes from 3.11 do not overwrite the ones from 3.12. So this option will only add all the database elements from your project that are not yet in ecoinvent 3.12, but it will not overwrite any data like locations, flows, units that exist already in the 3.12 database.

Comments

Yes, especially when you want to update a very large number of projects at the same time, I fully understand the need to automatize it.

For a few projects however, as in my case, I will even continue the manual update, because this comes with advantages over an automatic updater:
- I can reselect and double-check all provider in my own processes once per year for the new ecoinvent update (it's a once per year check of correctness and best provider selection).
- Sometimes ecoinvent regionalizes a global or a European data set more granular on a country level, so that sometimes a better fitting provider can be chosen in the new ecoinvent version that was only existing in a much larger area average before.
- Sometimes also the new update brings new technologies or products that were provided only by a proxy in my models with previous ecoinvent versions.
- For several large LCAs that takes maybe 15min per project of transferring the data and reselecting the same (or new) provider once per year in my case.

For many more projects I understand the need for automatization.