UNEP-Economy-Division / GLAD-ElementaryFlowResources

This is a repository for elementary flow lists, mapping files, and other resources pertinent to the Global LCA Data Access (GLAD) network initiative and data portal. If you want to contribute please contact Jonathas De Mello [jonathas.demello@un.org] and Claudia Giacovelli [claudia.giacovelli@un.org].
https://www.globallcadataaccess.org
26 stars 13 forks source link

Potential error in mapping of Argon-40 from ecoinvent to ILCD EF 3.0 #14

Open cswh opened 1 year ago

cswh commented 1 year ago

I saw that in https://github.com/UNEP-Economy-Division/GLAD-ElementaryFlowResources/blob/master/Mapping/Output/Mapped_files/ecoinventEFv3.7-ILCD-EFv3.0.xlsx Argon-40 is mapped without conversion factor from kg in ecoinvent to kBq in ILCD:

SourceListName SourceFlowName SourceFlowUUID SourceFlowContext SourceUnit MatchCondition ConversionFactor MapType TargetListName TargetFlowName TargetFlowUUID TargetFlowContext TargetUnit Mapper Verifier LastUpdated Flow Condition (S) Flow Condition (T) Flow Conf (S) Flow Conf (T) Context Condition (S) Context Condition (T) Context Conf (S) Context Conf (T) Conversion Conf (S) Conversion Conf (T)
Ecoinvent_3.7 argon-40 38321e66-f6ab-4908-b26f-c17267559bc5 air/unspecified kg     FLOWNAME_MANUAL EFv.3.0 argon-40 3f5f02ed-d820-47b1-b319-505ab06b9bc0 emission/air/unspecified kbq     29/09/2021 ~ '= B A   '= A A    
Ecoinvent_3.7 argon-40 8b46f615-69c9-4ca3-815e-a7bde116d202 natural resource/in air kg     FLOWNAME_MANUAL EFv.3.0 argon-40 e8d5b530-d495-4f79-8c34-ca8ec4852bfa resource/air/renewable/element kbq     29/09/2021 ~ '= B A   > B B    
Ecoinvent_3.7 argon-40 8b46f615-69c9-4ca3-815e-a7bde116d202 natural resource/in air kg     FLOWNAME_MANUAL EFv.3.0 argon-40 e8d5b530-d495-4f79-8c34-ca8ec4852bfa resource/air/renewable/element kbq     29/09/2021 ~ '= B A > > A A    

Since Argon-40 is a stable isotope, I assume that the underlying error is within the EF 3.0 unit definition of kBq for Argon-40. In fact it should be kg (?). I reported this error already to the EC/JRC that it can be hopefully fixed with the next EF release.

In the meantime I would suggest to update the ecoinventEFv3.7-ILCD-EFv3.0.xlsx (and probably other mapping files for ILCD) in order to use a conversion factor of 0 or to mark Argon-40 to be dropped for not creating errors in the resulting ILCD files.