Tools for Assessment

ECOINVENT

Laboratory for Energy Systems
Group Energy, Materials, Environment, ETH-Zentrum
CH-8092 Zürich, Switzerland

Tel: 41-1-632 5795
Fax: 41-1-632 1283

Short Description

ECOINVENT (Environmental Life Cycle Inventories of Energy Systems) is an environmental database. It has been developed in order to provide environmental inventories of energy systems and energy products to support life cycle assessment of generic products, and for application in comparative assessment of energy systems. It reflects primarily the present average conditions in Switzerland and in the UCPTE Countries ("Union pour la coodination de la production et du transport de l'électricité", the European Union for the Coordination of Production and Transmission of Electricity).

The database contains the relevant unaggregated, transparent and consistent data on material balances for a wide range of energy systems: coal, oil, natural gas, nuclear, hydro, biomass (wood), solar-thermal, geothermal and photovoltaic. All energy systems are anlaysed using the "cradle-do-grave" approach, including all steps in the chains and all stages in the life of each process: production of infrastructure and materials, transport, construction, operation and maintenance, dismantling and waste treatment. Approximately 500 interconnected processes have been investigated. A very broad spectrum of energetic and non-energetic resources as well as air and water pollutants and solid wastes has been covered (about 300). Also land depreciation and waste heat are accounted for.

Complete information on the inventories is provided in the report. The original data set and the inventories calculated by interconnecting all the processes are also available as EXCEL files.

Bibliography

Frischknecht R., Hofstetter P., Knoepfel I. (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zürich - ETHZ), Dones R., Zollinger E. (Paul Scherrer Institute - PSI), "Ökoinventare für Energiesysteme", 1st Edition, ETHZ/PSI, Zürich, March 1994 (in German). [Report No. 30-164, ENET, Administration und Vertrieb, Postbox 142, CH-3000 Bern 6, Switzerland; Fax: 41-31-352 7756].