How to characterise a flow with an inmpact cathegory?

Question

If I create a new flow, how can I characterise it so that it appears in impact cathegories?

How can I let the software know how much CO2 or other parameters it must calculate when I calculate the LCA? For example say I add "benzene" as a flow with a provider I made with a process (so not taken from an existing database), how does the software then know how much CO2-eq it must count for 1kg benzene for example? Shouldn't I be able to enter that somewhere? Because otherwise how can calculations be precise?

Concretely I want to be able to make new flows that have an impact factor that I assign to them.

Maybe also important to note that I can't code and have never used Python or similar programs.

Answer 1

Hello.

If you created your own custom process that results in the production of benzene, you have to include all greenhouse gases emitted during this process into the outputs of the process itself. This way, the emissions of CO2 and other greenhouse gases will be accounted for.

Impact factors are usually assigned to elementary flows (substances and energy transferred between the natural environment and the system you are assessing). Therefore, you can associate the processes you model (and their reference flows) with impacts by using elementary flows as inputs and outputs of the processes.

I hope I helped you at least a bit :)

Comments

actually, you can also assign impact factors to non-elementary flows too in openLCA but it often does not make sense; we do this e.g. in the EN15804 add-on where you have waste flows and recycled material as proxy impacts, foreseen by EN15804.

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I didn't know that. Thank you for your insightful input!