Importing IBU EPDs

Question

Greetings,

I'm trying to import EPDs from the IBU database, these are in xml format. I tried to import them into OpenLCA via Import > Other > Ecospold1. But it was not imported and I got an error message that OpenLCA could not recognize the Ecospold type of the xml file. I tried this with other xml files from the IBU database and checked my flow-mapping again, but none of them could be successfully imported.

Does anyone have any experience with using them?

With regards,

Meg

Answer 1

Hi Meg,

good question, "XML" is of course not a very precise description for an LCA format, EcoSpold1, EcoSpold2, ELCD, ILCD, and also ILCD+epd are all XML LCA formats. The IBU EPDs are ILCD+epd format. With the newest versions of openLCA, import simply as file works quite ok 

(openLCA then detects the format for users as this is often too complicated we find) but needs some refinement to be good, and when imported openLCA shows *a lot* of issues with the EPDs, which are existing in the files published and are not import-related. We will report this more in detail soon, but you can of course try yourself in mean time. 

Best wishes, Andreas

Comments

Hello Andreas,

Thank you for your reply. I had tried Import > File too, but got a message saying that OpenLCA could not detect the format of the file and that I could try other import options in the generic import dialog under Import > Other.

Because the IBU EPDs were related to construction industry data and in ILCD-EPD formats, I wondered if there were some similarities between these and the Ökobaudat EPDs. So I also tried using the EPD Editor tool and tried to convert the xml file into a zip file. But as I expected, I just got zip files which still weren't compatible with my newer OpenLCA versions.

 I have been trying everything on OpenLCA 2.0.1 and after reading your reply, I realised that perhaps, newer versions are available now. So I downloaded OpenLCA 2.0.4 and tried out everything again there, but its still the same- the import doesn't happen. I get the same messages explaining that the file formats cannot be detected.

I've also emailed the IBU team about possible issues with the files published, I'm looking forward to their reply. I'm also looking into alternative datasets for the input flows and processes I need, but any info about other (open-source) datasets for cold rolled stainless steel would be welcome.

With best regards,
Meg