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ILCD Export

Exporting products in ILCD format

ILCD (International Reference Life Cycle Data System) is a standardised format for sharing life cycle inventory data between LCA software tools. Use ILCD export to move products from XYCLE into other compatible software for further analysis.

When to use ILCD export

Export a product in ILCD format when you need to:

  • Continue analysis in another LCA tool
  • Share inventory data with colleagues or clients using different software
  • Use XYCLE as a data source while keeping detailed modelling in a specialised tool
  • Integrate XYCLE products into larger LCA models built elsewhere

What gets exported

XYCLE exports your product as an LCI result—a complete life cycle inventory of inputs and outputs. The export includes:

  • Process data—your product system represented as a unit process with all inputs and outputs
  • Elementary flows—the raw material and energy flows (in EF 3.1 format) that constitute your product's inventory
  • Metadata—your project name, the date of export, and your contact information as the data commissioner

The export is packaged as a zip file with a structured folder layout (processes, flows, flowproperties, unitgroups) ready for import into OpenLCA or similar tools.

What does not get exported

ILCD export is inventory data only. It does not include:

  • Impact assessment results—no carbon footprint, embodied energy, water use, or other impact scores. Impact calculation happens in the importing tool using its own methods and characterisation factors
  • LCIA methods or characterisation factors—the importing tool supplies these
  • Validation or compliance certification—structural validity only; data quality and methodological soundness remain your responsibility
  • New XYCLE data fields—only data already captured in your product model exports; no additional fields are created for ILCD compliance
  • System-level exports—only individual products export; you cannot export a system or multi-product flow as a single dataset

N.b. if the receiving tool has impact methods configured, it can calculate impacts from the elementary flows you export. The inventory is the foundation; the tool provides the assessment.

How to export a product

  1. From your project view, select Export ILCD (LCI Result) from the menu.
  2. Choose the product you wish to export.
  3. Select a location on your computer to save the file.
  4. XYCLE creates a zipped folder named after your project, containing an ILCD subfolder with three directories:
    • processes—your product represented as a process dataset
    • flows—all elementary flows in the product's inventory
    • flowproperties—quantitative properties describing each flow (mass, energy, etc.)
    • unitgroups—unit definitions for the flows
  5. Save the zip file and import it into your target software.

Using the export in OpenLCA

OpenLCA fully supports ILCD import. To import your XYCLE export:

  1. In OpenLCA, go to File → Import.
  2. Select ILCD as the format.
  3. Choose the zip file you exported from XYCLE.
  4. OpenLCA creates a new database with your product as an LCI result.
  5. Add impact assessment methods to OpenLCA to calculate environmental impacts based on the inventory.

For guidance on OpenLCA workflows, see the OpenLCA documentation.

Data quality and methodology

ILCD export transfers what you've modelled in XYCLE as-is. Before exporting, verify:

  • All inputs and outputs are complete and correctly quantified
  • Unit choices are consistent across the product system
  • Allocation methods (if any) are documented and defensible
  • Any assumptions are clear to downstream users

After import into another tool, the receiving software's methodological choices—impact methods, characterisation factors, normalisation, weighting—are your responsibility to configure and validate.

Troubleshooting

"Some flows could not be exported"—XYCLE can only export flows that map to EF 3.1 (ElementaryFlows version 3.1). If a custom flow is not recognised, it cannot be exported. Verify all flows in your product use standard elementary flow definitions.

"Import fails in OpenLCA"—Ensure you're importing the entire zip file, not individual XML files from inside it. OpenLCA requires the correct folder structure (ILCD root with subdirectories) to recognise the archive.

"No impact results after import"—ILCD export contains inventory only. After importing into OpenLCA, you must select and configure impact assessment methods to calculate environmental indicators.