ecoinvent 3.7 has been identified to include an issue of significant effect. Specifically, the iron sinter production dataset includes an error in the order of magnitude of the estimated emissions for dioxins and particulate matter (PM). This error distorts the results of the ecoinvent database using human health and ecotoxicity indicators from most methods.
All other impact categories, including climate change, water depletion, cumulative energy demand, land use and land use change, fossil depletion, acidification, eutrophication, ionising radiation, renewable resources, stratospheric ozone depletion, photochemical oxidant formation, radioactive substances and ozone layer depletion, are not impacted by these issues.
A technical report over this issue is available here.
To correct iron sinter production dataset, ecoinvent 3.7.1 is released in December 2020.
ecoinvent 3.7.1 focuses on correcting the iron sinter production dataset.
With this opportunity, the zinc mining dataset is also updated with newer data submitted by the International Zinc Association after the release of ecoinvent 3.7. This update is expected to significantly improve the quality of the database. The newer data address the high extraction of gold modelled in the dataset until now and affect the results of the database calculated using mineral resource depletion indicators from most methods. Otherwise, thereare further updates or changes of the content of ecoinvent 3.7.
Please note: Research and projects based on other impact categories, including climate change, water depletion, cumulative energy demand, land use and land use change, fossil depletion, acidification, eutrophication, ionising radiation, renewable resources, stratospheric ozone depletion, photochemical oxidant formation, radioactive substances and ozone layer depletion, remain completely unaffected by the issue.
Version 3.7 of the ecoinvent database features more than 900 new and 1,000 updated datasets related to metals, fertilisers, forestry and wood, packaging materials, waste/recycling, biogas supply chains, and electricity. As a result, the ecoinvent data landscape now includes 100 more products expanding the coverage of the database.
To ensure clarity and transparency, it is important to openly document the changes made between the latest update and the previous version of the database. This page includes the most important documents describing the differences between ecoinvent 3.6 and ecoinvent 3.7.
This section lists all known data errors in version 3.7 of the ecoinvent database. While the ecoinvent team focuses on eliminating such errors for upcoming updates, this section of known issues exists to alert database users and to support their understanding and use of the database.