How can I check the carbon footprint of a product system?

Question

Hello,

I'm trying to find the carbon footprint results for a product system of a Power Transformer with:

• Allocation method - Physical;
• Impact assessment method - ReCiPe 2016 Midpoint (I);
• Normalization and weighting set - World (2010) I;
• Calculation type - Analysis.

I've already analysed all the results, the top 5 contributors, the impact results of the most affected impact category with the normalization and so on.

The openLCA version I'm working on is 1.11.0 and I've mixed up many free databases from Nexus. 

Thank you very much for all the help.


Best regards,
Beatriz Teixeira

Comments

Hello Beatriz,

as I am now conducting an LCA on Power Transformers (PT) it would be useful if you could help me and answer some question.

1. what was your functional unit? 1 item of PT or the electricity it produces?

2. for the use stage, did you use the parameter(s) to divide all the material inputs for the total production during the lifetime (e.g. total electricity produced in 20 years)? or is there other approach that I need to consider?

thanks in advance

Gaukhar

Answer 1

Hello Beatriz,

There are two ways that a carbon footprint is typically discussed in the industry, and each has their own answer.

1: A carbon footprint is just a number, the total impact on global warming potential for your product system. It represents the GWP impact in your designated system boundary. If this is the carbon footprint you want, then simply check the impact analysis tab when you have calculated the product system, and take out the climate change value.

2: A carbon footprint in accordance with e.g. ISO 14067. If you need to subdivide your results onto climate change subcategories to meet a standardized reporting format, you will find it more difficult to do, using ReCiPe. I usually use the EF 3.1 LCIA method for subdivision into carbon categories.

I hope i answered your question, if not comment back.

Good luck

Comments

Hello,

thank you for this answer!

Can I ask how to subdivide and extract the carbon footprint ISO 14067 from EF 3.1 results? Is the resource use fossil an addition to the GWP for this?

Kind regards,
Johannes

Answer 2

Hello Beatriz,

as I am now conducting an LCA on Power Transformers (PT) it would be useful if you could help me and answer some question.

1. what was your functional unit? 1 item of PT or the electricity it produces?

2. for the use stage, did you use the parameter(s) to divide all the material inputs for the total production during the lifetime (e.g. total electricity produced in 20 years)? or is there other approach that I need to consider?

thanks in advance

Gaukhar

Comments

Hi Gaukhar,
Thanks for participating on ask.openlca.org!
The idea of the forum is to answer to the question within the "Your answer" form.
If you have questions in addition to a post, it would be nice to use the comment section instead or create a new post.
Thank you for your understanding.
François