Identifying data gaps in the energy supply chains of manufacturing sectors with an input–output LCA model

Abstract

Abstract National Renewable Energy Laboratory's Materials Flows through Industry tool was developed to analyze energy consumption across the supply chains of U.S. manufacturing industries. Due to the limitation of the data sources, the Tool may have incomplete data in some industries’ supply chains. To overcome this issue, this study provides a method to identify data gaps in the MFI tool with the information in input–output life cycle assessment models. Results show that around 5% processes in the MFI tool have potential data gaps in the supply chain. LCA practitioners can use this information to optimize activities to improve LCA models.