| Abstract | This document provides an overview of the National Research Council’s (NRC’s) light-duty vehicle life cycle assessment (LCA) model that was developed as part of the Public Services and Procurement Canada’s (PSPC’s) Low-Carbon Procurement Project (LCPP). It includes a brief description of the methodology, a detailed overview of the development of the inventory of modelled processes, and instructions on setting-up and using the model to evaluate the life cycle greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions of light-duty vehicles.
The NRC’s light-duty vehicle LCA model can be used to evaluate the life cycle greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions of 15 types of vehicles that vary by powertrain type and vehicle class:
• five types of powertrains, including internal combustion engine (ICEV), hybrid (HEV), plug-in hybrid (PHEV), all-electric (BEV) and fuel cell electric (FCEV), and
• three classes of vehicle, including a passenger car, sport utility vehicle (SUV) and pickup truck (PUT).
This model builds on NRC’s previous LCA work on light-duty vehicles It uses openLCA – an open-source LCA software platform, includes detailed information about material and energy inputs of vehicle component production and assembly, incorporates upstream energy use information from Environment and Climate Change Canada’s Fuel LCA model, uses Ecoinvent v3 as the life cycle inventory background database, and allows the users to define vehicle-specific parameters. |
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