ecoinvent v3.1 was released in July 2014. The main focus of this release was new data, with new products and updates to existing sectors.
Oct 17th, 2023
It also brought back the allocation model of version 2 as well as flows for the renewable CED and has introduced new LCIA methods.
As we wish to ensure clarity and transparency, we openly document the changes made between the latest update and the previous version of the database. Therefore, we offer various files that document and clarify the changes that have been made with each version of the database. These include detailed the report of changes, correspondence files, as well as files that include all activities of each version. Futrher, we document all known issues of each version to alert database users and to support their understanding and use of the database.
New and Updated Data
Forestry & Wood
The forestry and wood sector was updated with new or updated data on forestry and forestry machinery, sawmilling, wood products, wood preservatives and wood preservation services, heat and electricity from wood incineration.
Metals
The metals sector was expanded with new data on aluminium production including its supply chain and electricity use.
Waste Management
The sector was updated with new data on waste incineration processes.
Transport
The sector was updated with new data on road freight transport and emission updates of the existing data. The sector also includes improved data transport distance modelling for many products.
Water Supply
The sector is updated with new data for tap water production, and improved consistency in water consumption data throughout the database.
Agriculture
The Agriculture sector is updated with new data on dairy products and agricultural processes.
Machinery
The sector includes new data on machinery use and building materials.
Relevant Documents and Files
Report of Changes
This report covers all changes made in the ecoinvent database between version 3 (2013) and version 3.1 (2014). It reflects both the database-wide changes, as well as the sector-specific changes.
See Activity Overview for ecoinvent v3.1, Undefined
An excel file listing all the activities and products present in the ecoinvent version 3.1 database including most of the metadata (geography, ISIC classification, activity type, technology level, product type, unit, etc.). This file also includes a list of all geographies, elementary and intermediate exchanges present in the database.
Activity Overview for ecoinvent v3.1, Default
An excel file listing all the activities present in the ecoinvent version 3.1 database including metadata related specifically to the Allocation, ecoinvent default system model.
Activity Overview for ecoinvent v3.1, Consequential
An excel file listing all the activities present in the database including metadata related specifically to the Substitution, consequential, long-term system model.
Activity Overview for ecoinvent v3.1, Cut-Off
An excel file which lists all the activities present in the database including metadata related specifically to the Allocation, cut-off by classification system model.
Known Issues
This section lists all known data errors in version 3.1 of the ecoinvent database.
Data Issues
- In the activity electricity production, nuclear, pressure water reactor, heavy water moderated (all regions), emissions of radioactive substances to water have been estimated erroneously. These datasets therefore have too high emissions of these substances. The consequence is an overestimation of impacts in Ionizing Radiation and various toxic emission impact categories. Especially the electricity mixes of some Canadian regions are affected.
- The input of copper, 0.99% elementary flow is too high in the RoW dataset of copper mine operation: it is about 5x too high for both co-products, it could simply be 0.356 kg for copper concentrate and 0 kg for molybdenite as a recommendation for an intermediate fix. This goes for allocation models for both products, and for the consequential dataset.
- The regional electricity mixes specific to the aluminium industry were created in such a way that the relative shares of countries within so-called aluminium production areas were respected. However, the resulting area-wide grid mixes were not identical to those published on the International Aluminium Institute’s website. The differences are especially important for Area 1 (Africa), where coal is 12% too low and hydropower 12% too high, Area 4/5 (Asia w/o China) where coal is 18% too high and hydropower 18% too low, Area 7 (Oceania) where coal is 12% too high and hydropower 12% too low, and Area 2 (North America) w/o Quebec, where coal is 14% too high and hydropower 15% too low. Also, the electricity mix data for Quebec is based on outdated data published in version 3.0. The mix should have 1% less hydropower and 1% higher nuclear power.
- The activities “treatment of aluminium scrap, post-consumer, by collecting, sorting, cleaning, pressing” contains an error in the amount of PM > 10 um, which is 10e5 bigger than it should.
- The following activities had the input of solvent/water removed, following the rule of chemicals in solution:
- alkyd paint production, white, water-based, product in 60% solution state
- alkyd resin production, long oil, product in 70% white spirit solution state
- printing ink production, offset, product in 47.5% solution state
- printing ink production, rotogravure, product in 55% toluene solution state
- Unfortunately, the demanding activities of the resulting products (listed below) also lack this input of solvent/water.
- alkyd paint, white, without solvent, in 60% solution state
2. alkyd paint, white, without water, in 60% solution state
3. alkyd resin, long oil, without solvent, in 70% white spirit solution state
4. printing ink, offset, without solvent, in 47.5% solution state
5. printing ink, rotogravure, without solvent, in 55% toluene solution state
- Typo in “electricity, from municipal waste incineration to generic market for electricty, medium voltage” ; electricty instead of electricity
- In ecoinvent version 3.0 and version 3.1, the electricity losses from transformation and transmission are modelled on a voltage level-by-voltage level basis and do not consider the cumulative nature of these losses on their way from high to low voltage transformation and transmission on the electricity markets.
- In the “treatment of wastewater from medium density fibreboard production, capacity 5E9l/year”/GLO and RER activities the emission of Nitrate to water, ground-, long-term- is incorrect. The wrong value (2.03E+5kg) has been replaced by the correct value (2.03E-5kg) and will be included in the next release of the database.