ecoinvent Forum Archive

I am reviewing ecoinvent datasets on cotton fiber (up to ginning process) and came across the following discrepancy in the electricity usage data:

1)fibre production, cotton,ginning- GLO

electricity, medium voltage input= 0.156kWh/kg fiber

2) fibre production, cotton, organic, ginning- IN

electricity, medium voltage input= 0.001kWh/kg fiber

The electricity usage is off by an order of 2 magnitudes for ginning dataset in India compared to the global dataset. On revieweing LCAs on cotton by Textile Exchange and Cotton Inc, it appears that the ginning electricity usage is between 0.15kWh-0.3kWh. Could you please confirm if the electricity inputs are correct for cotton fiber datasets in India?

Dear asureshscs,

Thank you for your thread. The data in IN refer to primary data collection in Bangladesh (BD) and are extrapolated for IN as they were deemed appropriate also for that region. The GLO case however, refers to data provisioned from Cotton Inc and they truly refer to a global average situation. In BD the data collected (for electricity) usually refer to data from electricity bills or questionnaires to the farmers. It is a common practice that manual work replaces machineries given the low cost of labour. Having said that, the low values you observe would not be impossible or an inherent data error. You can read all those information in the general comments of the datasets and some also in the original documentation of the SRI project. There you may find more information that could be useful for your study. You can find the documentation in the following link. A simple registration with your email is a prerequisite to access the report. Needless to say that accessing the report automatically assumes your agreement with our Terms of use also shown in the link above.

Best regards,

Avraam Symeonidis,

Data analyst, ecoinvent association