On this page
Consensus Flow List
Every life cycle inventory database names its substances differently. ecoinvent
calls it Carbon dioxide, fossil; EF 3.1 calls it Carbon dioxide (fossil);
SimaPro has its own spelling again — and each attaches it to a differently-named
compartment. Nothing in those names tells you whether two entries mean the same
thing, and nothing tells you when two entries that look the same are actually
different substances.
This project builds a consensus elementary flow list: one identity per substance, one controlled vocabulary of contexts, and an explicit, traceable link from every source list's flow back to that shared identity.
What you get
For each substance in the consensus list:
- One preferred name per language, drawn from the source data but cleaned, normalised, or replaced where a clearly better-established name exists.
- Synonyms from ChEBI and CAS Common Chemistry, filtered to remove names that belong to a different substance.
- Chemical identity: CAS, EC, KEGG and Gmelin numbers; molecular formula, mass, charge; InChI, InChIKey, SMILES, IUPAC name.
- Semantic typing —
Nickel(2+)is recorded as a MonoatomicIon whose Atom is nickel. - A definition and links out to chemical, biomedical, and physical databases, and to Wikidata.
- Provenance for every value — which source asserted it, and which processing step wrote it.
- Cross-list links, so a flow in EF 3.1 can be translated to its counterpart in SimaPro or ecoinvent.
Who this documentation is for
It is written for engineers and analysts who work with inventory data — people who know what an elementary flow, a compartment, and a characterisation factor are, but who do not need to read Python to use this project.
Three pages assume you are modifying the code and say so at the top: Architecture, Conventions and Data model. Nothing else does — including Harmonisation steps, which describes what the pipeline decides rather than the code that runs it.
Where to start
- "What is this project claiming, and can I trust it?"
-
Why this exists → Flow objects and elementary flows → How decisions are made → Known limitations
- "I have the output files and want to use them."
- "I need to run or re-run the pipeline."
-
Installation → Running a transform → Choosing sources → The review application
- "I am reviewing the harmonisation decisions."
-
The review application → Harmonisation steps → How decisions are made
If a term is unfamiliar, check the Glossary.
Project status
This is active research software. The consensus context taxonomy and the harmonisation rules both still change as they meet more real-world data. The Known limitations page lists what is currently unresolved, including cases where the output is known to be wrong — read it before depending on the data for anything consequential.