Introduction

Python 3.10 Python 3.11 Python 3.12

Brightway 2.4 Brightway 2.5

This library is a layer above brightway2 designed for the definition of parametric inventories with fast computation of LCA impacts, suitable for monte-carlo / global sensitivity analysis

It integrates the magic of Sympy in order to write parametric formulas as regular Python expressions.

lca-algebraic provides a set of helper functions for :

  • compact & human readable definition of activities :

    • search background (tech and biosphere) activities

    • create new foreground activities with parametrized amounts

    • parametrize / update existing background activities (extending the class Activity)

  • Definition of parameters

  • Fast computation of LCAs

  • Computation of monte carlo method and global sensitivity analysis (Sobol indices)

  • Support for automatic check of homogeneity of physical units

⚙ Installation

We support both Brightway 2.4 (legacy) and Brightway 2.5 via two separate branches / libraries :

1) Setup separate environment

First create a python environment, with Python [>=3.10, <3.13] :

With Conda (or mamba)

conda create -n lca python==3.10
conda activate lca

With virtual env

python3.10 -m venv .venv
source .venv/bin/activate

2) Install lca_algebraic

pip install lca_algebraic

Or, for brightway 25 :

pip install lca_algebraic_bw25

3) [Optional] Install Jupyter & Activity Browser

You may also install Jupyter and Activity Browser on the same environment.

Jupyter :

pip install jupyter

Activity Browser can only be installed via conda/mamba. Note that it can also be installed on environment and will still be able to access and browse the projects created programmatically with lca_algebraic / Brightway.

conda install activity-browser

NOTE While the inventories created in lca_algebraic are stored in the Brightway project, the formulas and parameters are not compatible with Activity Browser Before computing impacts with vanilla Brightway2 or Activity Browser, you may use the function freezeParams() to update the amounts in your database for a given scenario / set of parameter values.

Mailing list

Please register to this dedicated mailing list to discuss the evolutions of this library and be informed of future releases :

lca_algebraic@groupes.mines-paristech.fr

Source code

The source code is available of our github

Summary