Developing life cycle inventory datasets for the hydrogen value chain : a step-by-step guidance towards the publication in the Life Cycle Data Network, v1.0

The development of a quality-assured life cycle data inventory has to fulfil several requirements, as established by existing compliance systems. As Fuel Cell and Hydrogen (FCH) systems are a recently growing technology sector with high opportunities for green energy production and decarbonisation in the near future, the development of reliable data to perform Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of different products is fundamental to monitor progress on the sustainability objectives and ensure that environmental impacts along the life cycle are minimized. This document defines the main steps that data developers are required to follow to share compliant datasets, acting as a reference procedure for a broad range of users, not necessarily with a specific background on data development. Datasets in the Life Cycle Data Network (LCDN) can be validated and accepted based on the different compliance levels, namely the International Reference Life Cycle Data System - Entry Level (ILCD Entry level) and the Environmental Footprint (EF) compliance (in line with the more recent Environmental Footprint scheme, launched by the European Commission in 2013). When developing a dataset, it is important to understand how different compliance levels imply differences in documentation, review and methodology. Thus, these aspects are addressed and clarified in this procedure. Moreover, the working principles of the nodes, which allow users to share and retrieve datasets from LCDN, are explained. References to official tools and manuals users should follow are provided, with the final aim to create a node in the LCDN dedicated to FCH systems and populate it with Life Cycle Inventory (LCI) data.