PENRM and PERM return zero values in ecoinvent 3.11 EN 15804 add-on - manual LHV flows required?

Question

We are currently preparing an EPD verification and have encountered an issue with the resource use indicators PENRM and PERM, which are both returning zero values in our model.

After reviewing several discussions and Q&A entries in this forum, our understanding is that, when using ecoinvent 3.11 with the EN 15804 add-on, the elementary flows:

• Inherent LHV of declared product and packaging (renewable)
• Inherent LHV of declared product and packaging (non-renewable)

need to be added and modelled manually in order to account for the inherent energy content of the declared product and packaging and obtain correct PERM/PENRM results.

Could you please confirm whether this interpretation is correct?

If so, is it sufficient to calculate the lower heating value (LHV) of the relevant combustible material fractions and assign these values to the corresponding elementary flows, or are there additional modelling requirements that should be considered when preparing an EN 15804+A2 compliant EPD?

Any guidance would be greatly appreciated, as this is an important topic for our ongoing EPD verification.

Thank you very much 

Angelika

Answer 1

Yes, you should better calculate the PENRM and PERM values manually from the lower heating values of the corresponding product inputs. You can manually insert the elementary flows for PENRM and PERM into you EPD modules, so that they appear in the PENRM and PERM results, and so that PENRE and PERE is automatically calculated as the difference between PENRE = PENRT - PENRM and PERE = PERT - PERM.

For further guidance, you should check the rules from the program operator where you will publish the EPD. Sometimes they have on their website, or in the PCRs examples and rules on how to evaluate the PENRM and PERM indicators manually for each EPD module. We cannot automate this anymore, since most program operators and therefore most reviewers will ask to have this approximation only in the foreground (manually calculated in the foreground) and not over the background database like ecoinvent.

Comments

Alright, thank you very much, Conrad!