Location: DE - Germany
This dataset represents the production of 1 kg of bentonite. Bentonite is an industrial mineral with a high content of swellable threelayer clay minerals, which often originates from the transformation of volcanic ashes and tuffs. Bentonite is used for the production of activated bentonite. This dataset is based on information published in an environmental report by a German company (Süd-Chemie AG).
References:
Kellenberger D., Althaus H.-J., Jungbluth N., Künniger T., Lehmann M. and Thalmann P. (2007) Life Cycle Inventories of Building Products. Final report ecoinvent Data v2.0 No. 7. EMPA Dübendorf, Swiss Centre for Life Cycle Inventories, Dübendorf, CH.
Virta R. L. (2015) USGS 2013 Minerals Yearbook – Clay and shale [advance release]
Undefined unit processes (UPRs) are the unlinked, multi-product activity datasets that form the basis for all of the system models available in the ecoinvent database. This is the way the datasets are obtained and entered into the database by the data providers. These activity datasets are useful for investigating the environmental impacts of a specific activity (gate-to-gate), without regard to its upstream or downstream impacts.