We would like to communicate about reported issues with the ecoinvent 3.10 database. This information was forwarded from ecoinvent database developers on the 11.09.2024. The issues apply only to ecoinvent version 3.10 and not other versions.
Issue Summary:
- Coke Production Emissions (China and Rest-of-World): The first issue involves incorrect emissions values for two unit processes that model coke production. Emissions of “Cobalt II” and “Anthracene” are significantly overestimated, leading to inflated impact scores for indicators related to ecotoxicity, human toxicity, and human health. This affects a substantial part of the database due to the widespread use of coke in product supply chains. However, indicators outside of these specific impact categories remain unaffected.
- Brazilian Electricity Market Production Volumes: The second issue pertains to production volumes in Brazilian electricity markets, where the volumes are three orders of magnitude too small. This underestimates the contribution of Brazilian markets to the Latin American market groups (RLA), which particularly impacts biogenic climate change and climate change related to land use indicators. Only a small number of datasets (less than 0.5%) are affected, though the impact is noticeable in RLA market groups and around ten additional datasets.
Resolution Plan:
To address these issues, ecoinvent will release version 3.10.1 to provide fixes for users of version 3.10. This intermediate version will be made available concurrently with version 3.11 at the beginning of November.
If a user is not using ecoinvent version 3.10, their work is not affected by these two issues.
Recommendations:
For users of version 3.10: We recommend upgrading to version 3.10.1 upon its release at the beginning of November, especially if their work involves the affected impact categories or unit process data related to coke production or Brazilian electricity markets.
For users of earlier versions: These issues do not affect their work. When they upgrade to the latest version, we advise starting directly with version 3.10.1 or 3.11.