TRACIv2.1 for FEDEFLv1.2 (No Flows)

TRACIv2.1 (Bare 2012) is a life cycle impact assessment (LCIA) method. LCIA methods are collections of characterization factors, which are measures of relative potency or potential impact, for a given flow (e.g., NH3 to air) for a set of impact categories (e.g., acidification), provided in units of potency or impact equivalents per unit mass of the flowable associated with a given context (e.g., 1.88 kg SO2 eq/kg NH3 emitted to air). LCIA methods are typically used along with life cycle inventory data to estimate potential impacts in life cycle assessment (LCA).

The FEDEFL or Federal LCA Commons Elementary Flow List (EPA 2019) is the standardized elementary flow list for use with data meeting the US Federal LCA Commons data guidelines.

In this dataset, TRACv2.1 is applied to FEDEFL v1.2.3 flows. This dataset was created by the LCIA Formatter v1.1.3 (https://github.com/USEPA/LCIAformatter). The LCIA Formatter is a tool for providing standardized life cycle impact assessment methods with characterization factors transparently applied to flows from an authoritative flow list, like the FEDEFL. The LCIA Formatter draws from the original TRACIv2.1 source file and the TRACI->FEDEFL flow mapping. The LCIA formatter accesses this mapping file through the fedelemflowlist tool (https://github.com/USEPA/fedelemflowlist). Where a flow context is less specific in the FEDEFL (e.g., air) relative to the TRACIv2.1 flow contexts (e.g., air/rural), the LCIA Formatter applies the average of the relevant characterization factors from TRACIv2.1 to the FEDEFL flow.

The zip file is a compressed archive of JSON files following the openLCA schema (https://greendelta.github.io/olca-schema). Usage Notes for zip file: This file was tested to correctly import into an openLCA v2.1 database already containing flows from the FEDEFL v1.2. It will provide matching characterization factors for any FEDEFL elementary flow already present in the database. This file itself does not contain the elementary flows. Use of this "No Flows" method is described on https://www.lcacommons.gov/lcia-methods-without-flows. The complete FEDEFL v1.2 flow list may be retrieved from the Federal LCA Commons elementary flow list repository at https://www.lcacommons.gov.

An associated .parquet file is available with the method in tabular format (https://dmap-data-commons-ord.s3.amazonaws.com/lciafmt/traci/TRACI_2.1_v1.1.1_27ba917.parquet). The .parquet file is in the LCIA Formatter's LCIAmethod format. https://github.com/USEPA/LCIAformatter/blob/v1.1.3/format specs/LCIAmethod.md. Usage notes for parquet file: The .parquet file can be read by any Apache parquet reader.

References

Bare, J. C. 2012. Tool for the Reduction and Assessment of Chemical and Other Environmental Impacts (TRACI), Version 2.1 - User’s Manual https://www.epa.gov/chemical-research/tool-reduction-and-assessment-chemicals-and-other-environmental-impacts-traci

EPA 2019. The Federal LCA Commons Elementary Flow List: Background, Approach, Description and Recommendations for Use. https://cfpub.epa.gov/si/si_public_record_Report.cfm?dirEntryId=347251.

This dataset is associated with the following publication: Young, B., M. Srocka, W. Ingwersen, B. Morelli, S. Cashman, and A. Henderson. LCIA Formatter. Journal of Open Source Software, 6(66): 3392, (2021). https://doi.org/10.21105/joss.03392.