Dear OpenLCA community,
Greetings. I am a new user of OpenLCA for waste modeling. I am currently modeling a recycling process for NMC 111 EV battery.
From my understanding of the principle mentioned in the OpenLCA manual, i want to model the recycling process. I want to follow Material Flow Logic (MFL) principle using OpenLCA version 2.3.0 and Ecoinvent V3.10.
<!--[if gte vml 1]>
<![endif]--><!--[if !vml]-->
<!--[endif]-->
Following the above diagram, for waste battery, (let’s say, one unit of NMC 111 battery which is around 300 kg containing various materials) as show below in the input and output window, I first developed the waste producing process. From my understanding, for waste modelling, all the materials that constitute the waste should present in the final waste material (here is the 1 unit of NMC 111 battery).
I created a new flow waste NMC 111 that represent the waste.
<!--[if gte vml 1]>
<![endif]--><!--[if !vml]-->
<!--[endif]-->
Then I modeled the waste treatment process (i.e., the recycling process, as show below). that requires addition materials energy and others and has outputs, including the emission and avoided products those are recycled (e.g., lithium, nickel, cobalt and others).
<!--[if gte vml 1]>
<![endif]--><!--[if !vml]-->
<!--[endif]-->
Following is the model graph for waste producing process (i.e., just the initial case representing the waste NMC 111 battery as waste). Here, I can see that waste treatment process is also shown.
<!--[if gte vml 1]>
<![endif]--><!--[if !vml]-->
<!--[endif]-->
Model graph for the recycling process is shown below. Here, I can not see the connection of waste producing process. <!--[if gte vml 1]>
<![endif]--><!--[if !vml]-->
<!--[endif]-->
Now my questions are,
1) when calculating the impact, should I consider the waste producing process (the 1st Model graph) or waste treatment process (2nd model graph)?
2) is there any other alternative way to model the case?
Many thanks,
Tasbirul
