lca_algebraic is a layer above Brightway 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

lca_algebraic supports both Brightway 2.4 (legacy) and Brightway 2.5 via optional pip extras.

1) Setup separate environment

First create a python environment, with Python [>=3.10, <3.14] :

With Conda (or mamba)

conda create -n lca python==3.12
conda activate lca

With virtual env

python3.12 -m venv .venv
source .venv/bin/activate

2) Install lca_algebraic

Install for Brightway2 :

pip install lca_algebraic[bw2]

Or for Brightway25 :

pip install lca_algebraic[bw25]

For development (tests, pre-commit, etc.) :

pip install lca_algebraic[bw2,dev]
# or
pip install lca_algebraic[bw25,dev]

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 a separate Python env 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.

📚 Documentation & resources

Full documentation is hosted on readthedocs

We provide some notebooks :

• Example notebook : Basic functionalities
• Handbook : More examples, also showing the usage of the Brightway functions.
• Workshop : A "real life" exercise used as a short training on lca_algebraic

📧 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

© Licence & Copyright

This library has been developed by MinesParis - PSL - O.I.E team, for the project INCER-ACV, lead by ADEME.

It is distributed under the BSD License

Contributions

Please base potential pull-requests on the dev branch.

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