how do i translate a EPD into a process?

Question

If I have product-specific data in the form of an EPD, how do I translate the data in a simple way into a process in OpenLCA? the EPD contains cradle-to-gate processes, can I then just create a process with no inputs and only outputs. I mean like this process produces 1 item x and y mass amount of the impact categories such as CO2-eq for example, I should be able to just put it as Carbon Dioxide right? or is there another way of doing it?

Answer 1

You can do that, but IMO it's quite a dangerous way to build an inventory. EPD might have been compiled using different background databases or different versions of the same database (e.g. different ecoinvent versions), even if under the same PCR. So there's a lot of potential for internal inconsistency in the resulting LCA. Seems that some whole-building LCA tools work this way though, for better or worse.

Chris

Answer 2

Hi, you can create a process indeed, it is then sth like a system process but with LCIA results; for example, the Ökobaudat database contains processes that are basically EPDs. You can also use our "EPD editor" to create these "processes" in the so called ILCD+EPD format; the tool is open source, we develop it since several years, see here for the code:

https://github.com/GreenDelta/epd-editor

and download from here:

https://github.com/GreenDelta/epd-editor/releases/tag/v4.0.0

However, this is all not terribly elegant, an EPD is of course not a process, it is only a bit more easy for LCA tools to assume that an EPD is almost a process dataset.

Comments

Can you transform an EPD for me into a process?