Life cycle inventory modelling in the Swiss national LCI database ecoinvent 2000

摘要

In late 2000 the project ecoinvent 2000 has officially been launched. Several Swiss federal agencies and nine institutes of the ETH domain agreed on a joint effort to harmonise and update life cycle inventory (LCI) data for its use in life cycle assessment (LCA). The goal is a unified and generic set of LCI data of high quality which is valid for Swiss and Western European conditions. The Centre for life cycle inventories in the ETH domain has developed a central database building on past experienceswith a large network-based LCI database developed at ETH Zurich. The database comprises in a first version LCI data from the energy, transport, building materials, chemicals, detergents, paper and pulp, waste treatment and agricultural sector (ecoinventdata vl.O). The content of the database will be made publicly available via the web page www.ecoinvent.ch. A data exchange format (ECOSPOLD) has been developed for the data im- and export to different software tools. This format uses the extended mark-up language (XML) for data exchange. The consistent and coherent LCI datasets for basic processes make it easier to perform LCA studies, and increase the credibility and acceptance of the life cycle results.