Methodology for PCF Calculations of Lubricants, Greases and other Specialties
3 Life Cycle Inventory for PCF calculation
This section provides an overview of the life cycle inventory which describes the compilation and quantification of inputs and outputs of a product system over its life cycle. Section 3.1 describes the data collection and validation steps that need to be performed. Based on the collected data, cut-off rules shall be applied (cf. Section 3.2) and multifunctionality problems shall be solved according to defined allocation procedures (cf. Section 3.3). Additionally, specific modeling principles for the calculation of waste and wastewater treatment, as well as recycling are described in Section 3.4.
Data requirements
This section describes the data collection and validation steps that need to be performed. Section 3.1.1 provides an overview of the principles governing data collection. It includes a description of the flows that take place within the product system, as well as the differentiation between the foreground system and the background system. In addition, an explanation of different data categories is provided. Section 3.1.2 outlines the data quality requirements used to evaluate the quality of the collected data. Section 3.1.3 offers a description of how to assess the total data quality rating of the resulting PCF.
3.1.1 Data collection principles
The data collection for the PCF calculation is crucial for ensuring the accuracy and completeness of LCA results. Therefore, the data sources of the collected data shall be reported during the PCF assessment. Note that the data collection shall consider all data within the defined system boundary (cf. Section 2.3).
In general, two types of input and output flows need to be collected: elementary flows and technology flows (cf. Section 2.3). Elementary flows are material or energy flows entering or leaving the product system. Elementary flows are drawn/released from/into the environment without previous or subsequent human transformation, e.g. GHGemissions, natural gas, etc. Technology flows are all products, energy, waste and material flows that are exchanged between processes within the system boundary.
As an example, Figure 3 illustrates a stereotypical production process of a lubricant manufacturer within the defined system boundary (cf. Section 2.3): In the foreground system, at the lubricant manufacturer’s production site, all processes that are under the control of the lubricant manufacturer are presented 2. These can be simplified and summarized into the raw material storage, intra-site material handling, including transport and the blending and storage of the actual production process of blending
2 Note: The foreground system might change for lubricant manufacturers that have operations before the manufacturing life cycle stage, cf. Section 2.3.2. Thus, processes as raw material aquisition might fall under the foreground system.
Version 1.2, 15.10.2025 © ATIEL and UEIL Page 13 of 40 This document is a controlled document only in electronic form. Printed versions or copies are not subject to change service
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