How can I implement CO2 fixation into my LCA

Question

Hi everybody,

I have to model a simplified LCA of 1l of olive oil for my uni seminar "Environmental Impact Assessment". I want to include the CO2e fixation during the agricultural phase. My question is: Can I just use the natural flow "Carbon dioxide" (category: resource/in air) and put the value with a negative sign on the input side as CO2e is taken from the air and fixed in the trees and soil?

Thank you and kind regards,
Nina

P.S.: I am using ReCiPe 2016 Midpoint (H) for our calculations.

Answer 1

Hi Nina,

welcome - you should use the resource CO2 in air as input

a negative emission technically works too but does not reflect the real situation.

Best wishes,

Andreas

Comments

Hi Andreas,

thank you very much. This is exactly what I used. :) So I just erase the minus sign and leave it as input? Did I understand you correctly?  

Greetings,

Nina

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indeed, put CO2 as input without minus, but in addition, use the CO2 resource flow, not a CO2 emission flow. Just as the image above shows, resource/in air/ Carbon dioxide.

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Thank you very much for your help! :)

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Hey Andreas,
I had exactly the same problem as Nina. Thanks for the comment to make sure that it is the carbon dioxide flow from the resource folder. Anyway, I am using ecoinvent 3.4 and considered the following issue:
There are two carbon dioxide biogenic flows, one is called carbon dioxide (biogenic) and the other one is called carbon dioxide (biogenic-100yr). For the first one, the software does not consider the carbon uptake when I look on the LCIA- results. For the second one (100-yr), it is working.

--> Does it make any difference using the 100-yr flow? I would prefer taking the other one as that flow is also used in some other processes.

Thanks in advance for your response,
Anna