Missing Flows/Providers and therefore missing Impact Informations

Question

Hi people,

I downloaded openLCA and some free databases and want to model a grinding process, the material which is used for the input is 1.4116 Steel.
I could not find any flow for that, and even if i want to model it by its chemical components (82% iron, 14% chromium etc.) I have problems finding specific flows/providers for those elements.
If i use elemental flows as Inputs I dont get any results in the impact categories.

Is there a solution to that?

Thanks in advance

Answer 1

First of all, if you want to use a grinding process, you probably want to look for processes (which of course produce a flow/flows). If you cannot find a matching process, you could either extend your data range (non-free databases which are typically more extensive and can be searched through via https://nexus.openlca.org/) or create the respective process on yourself under use of background data.

I hope this helps.

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UPDATE

If the flows in your process are now displayed in the impact results you may want to add them to the impact categories of your impact method manually. You can list flows that are not captured by your applied impact method in the "LCIA Checks" tab upon calculating the analysis results. Likewise, the "impact analysis" tab of a process will show you which flows are captured by which impact category of an LCIA method.

Comments

Thanks for your answer.
I looked for the grinding process, but theres none.
And regarding modeling the process myself, like i stated above, the background data is not available with producers to obtain results for the impact categories...
So looks like getting a non free database is the only option? or are there any free databases besides the ones on nexus?

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Maybe there are some additional processes available as part of the LCA Commons https://www.lcacommons.gov/lca-collaboration/search
I also added something to my answer.

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Its more about a metal grinding process i want to analyse,
For example i need the flow of 1.4116 steel, but cant find it anywhere, and if i want to model it via its elements (Chromium,Iron,Manganese,Molybdenum...) if i add those as an input they dont have any impact on the impact categories. For example i could declare 100kg Chromium as Input and it does nothing in the impact analysis

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https://ask.openlca.org/69/all-the-impact-analysis-results-are-zero?show=69#q69