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Where can I find the dry matter content of a product in Open LCA for Ecoinvent products/processes? For example "sulfate pulp production, from softwood, bleached". In SimaPro there is a special "comment" field for each product where the specifications are given. Do you have any suggestions where to find it in Open LCA?
ago in openLCA by (120 points)

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If needed urgently, you can always find it in the ecoQuery. But you are right that it can be useful to put all the properties into the product flow description in case users want to have quicker access to this values. We already did this for the upcoming EN15804 add-on, because for EPDs, the net calorific heating values of products are usually needed in the foreground to estimate the energy used as material.

In a new Nexus update for ecoinvent 3.11 we could do the same for the ecoinvent 3.11 default databases and put all properties into the product flow description field.

But please be aware that these values are only average, rough estimates. ecoinvent is giving the properties only on a flow basis and not on an exchange basis. Even though you find these values reported for every exchange, they are the same if the product stays the same. This means that you will have the same water content or the same price for all exchanges of the same product, independent from the process providing that product, independent from the process having that product in the input and independent of the process location.

You will find, for example, the same water content of 0.7 for softwood and for hardwood and for different trees and different locations worldwide, and you will find the same price for electricity for every location in the world. I'm telling this, since these property values have to be taken with care. Often it is more appropriate to estimate these values yourself from supplier data and/or literature.
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