Ecoinvent3.9

Support for ecoinvent3.9 available.

Ecoinvent 3.8

Support for ecoinvent3.8 available.

Ecoinvent 3.6 & 3.7.1

New:

• support for ecoinvent3.6
• support for ecoinvent3.7.1

Deprecated:

• No more support for ecoinvent3.3
• No more support for exiobase2

Export to Brightway2

Version 2.1 enables the export of hybrid databases generated from pylcaio to brightway2 and its activity-browser. This makes the manipulation of generated hybrid databases much simpler.

pylcaio v2.0

Version 2.0 of pylcaio goes beyond the hybridization available in v1.0 by introducing additional options: the endogenization of capitals of EXIOBASE, the extrapolation of additional environmental extensions based on USEEIO and a possibility to hybridize some processes which were excluded from hybridization in v1.0 due to poor price data.
One of the new feature of this version is also the link made with Impact World+, a more recent characterization method. ("Bulle, C., Margni, M., Patouillard, L., Boulay, A. M., Bourgault, G., De Bruille, V., … Jolliet, O. (2019). IMPACT World+: a globally regionalized life cycle impact assessment method. International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment, 1653–1674. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11367-019-01583-0").
Ecoinvent, EXIOBASE and extensions from USEEIO (if the user include them) were linked to this method. This allows a comparison of hybridization results on more than 30 impact categories.

All the details surrounding these additional features will be available in a subsequent article.

On a technical point of view, calculations are now all done using sparse matrix format, which greatly reduces the burden on the required RAM. Unfortunately, due to the numerous additional data that are added in this version, 8GB of RAM are still required, which is pretty standard memory anyways, even on a laptop.

Some of the features available in v1.0 have been abandoned in v2.0. The template notably was abandoned, because it was not my intention to rebuild another sort-of-LCA-software. The user willing to add new processes and hybridize them will have to go into the matrices and add the necessary rows and columns. It will thus require programming knowledge. It is my belief that this code is more likely going to be integrated into brightway2 than try to be something on its own. There was thus no reason for me to keep up things as templates.

Note that version 2.0 also allows the user to use the regionalized version of IW+. If choosing so, pylcaio will automatically generate a spatialized inventory for EXIOBASE (i.e., create an additional S matrix where pollutants are linked to the country they are emitted in) and regionalized characterization matrices (careful, the more matrices, the more the RAM requirement increases). The results I got with this regionalized version, however, are still sketchy. This is not a problem with pylcaio itself, but a problem with IW+ and EXIOBASE that requires deeper analysis and contact with both teams.

Overall features:

• dependency to pymrio and ecospold2matrix
• the user needs to get the endogenized version of EXIOBASE3 (link available soon)
• includes 2 methods to correct double counting (STAM and binary)
• can use the software to execute normal LCA calculations (with Impact World+ or other methods)
• can use the software to execute normal IO calculations (with Impact world+ or CML2001)
• contribution analyses available
• includes a module to automatically save hybridized matrices in a pickle format

Features specific to this version:

• works only with ecoinvent3.5
• works only with exiobase3
• can characterize hybridization results with either CML2001 or IW+
• comes in with extrapolated additional extensions for EXIOBASE

Limitations of the version:

• unit tests are lacking
• cannot be exported to mainstream LCA software
• hybridization with common flows is currently imposed to the user
• regionalization of impacts has to be improved

pylcaio v1.0

The first operating version of pylcaio. This version matches the description of the software that is presented in the article "Agez, M., Wood, R., Margni, M., Strømman, A. H., Samson, R., & Majeau-Bettez, G. (2019). Hybridization of complete LCA and MRIO databases for a comprehensive product system coverage. Journal of Industrial Ecology, 1–17. https://doi.org/10.1111/jiec.12979".

Overall features:

• dependency to pymrio and ecospold2matrix
• includes 2 methods to correct double counting (STAM and binary)
• can use the software to execute normal LCA calculations (with access to more characterization methods)
• can use the software to execute normal IO calculations (still only CML2001 there)
• contribution analyses available
• includes a module to automatically save hybridized matrices in a pickle format

Features specific to this version:

• works with ecoinvent3.3 and ecoinvent3.5
• works with exiobase2 and exiobase3
• uses a template to add new processes and allows their hybridization
• only works with CML2001 for hybridization results
• can also export the main hybridization matrix in csv format

Limitations of the version:

• requires a fairly large amount of RAM because calculations are done in numpy arrays format (8/12GB required)
• template is very sketchy
• unit tests are lacking
• code could definitely be improved to enhance the efficiency of hybridization/calculations
• cannot be exported to mainstream LCA software