CO2 emissions/energy from elementary flows

Question

I am new to using openLCA. I want to calculate the CO2 emissions AND energy usage involved in the production of a few raw materials (fumaric acid, ethyl acetate, cyclohexane, etc.). 

I see these raw materials in the elementary flows database that was available when I first opened openLCA (i.e., available as "inputs" in one of the processes I made): 

However, I have no clue how to see the CO2 emissions or energy usage, and these elementary flows do not show up as inputs in the product system I made. 

What is the best way to see the CO2 emissions and energy usage for raw materials available as elementary flows on a per kilogram basis? 

Thanks,

Joey

Answer 1

Hi Joey,

welcome! The CO2 emissions and all the other resources and emissions that you see when you create a new database in openLCA with reference data are just "flows", which then can be used as inputs or outputs of processes to model a life cycle assessment. They do not represent any impact yet (just as the units that you also find in these referennce data are not linked to an impact directly).

You need to either create processes yourself, or import processes, e.g. from databases that you find on openLCA Nexus, which you then can enrich with own processes, to make a life cycle model and then see CO2 emissions, and  impacts.

Hth, best wishes,

Andreas

Comments

Thanks Andreas! So just to clarify, if I wanted to know the CO2 emissions from something like fumaric acid, I would have to import a separate database or create the flow myself, correct?