I recently purchased a license to the Carbon Minds database, believing that I could use it to substitute some processes in my LCI or to cross-check the results of other generic data. The rest of my LCI is based on specific data and on the Ecoinvent database for background datasets.
When reading the details of their methodology, it seems however like their allocation approach differs in some key ways to all of the System Models provided by Ecoinvent, especially:
- System expansion/avoided burdens is a preferred way to solve co-allocation problems (* page 27).
- The environmental burdens of the incineration process in case of energy recovery is allocated to the user of the energy rather than the product system generating the waste (* page 32).
These choices may be fine when doing studies according to certain methodological guides (GHG Protocol, etc.?), but seems to make it impossible to combine CM data with Ecoinvent data in a consistent LCI model.
Has anyone else encountered this problem, and how have you tried to solve it?
Reference
* cm.chemicals database – methodology document Version 2.01, March 2024
