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Core Features
Alongside its broader database, HiQLCD offers six specialized data packages. These provide more concentrated coverage for particular industries or, in the case of the Basic Package, a cross-industry foundation. Dataset counts below are stated on a single-system-model basis.
Basic Package: The broadest package, with 18,000+ datasets spanning industries. It provides general background LCI data for users whose assessments require inputs extending across multiple sectors rather than one specialized value chain.
Steel Package: Contains 5,000+ datasets covering the steel value chain from raw materials and metallurgical inputs through smelting to downstream processing. Coverage differentiates industry classifications, product grades, technologies and geographic locations.
Photovoltaic Package: Provides 1,700+ datasets across the PV value chain, including polysilicon, wafers, cells, modules and inverters, together with important upstream materials such as silica and industrial silicon.
Energy Package: Contains 1,500+ datasets covering electricity, oil and gas, coal and bioenergy. Its China-specific energy data is particularly important because background energy inputs can materially influence the footprints of products manufactured in different regions and supply chains.
Waste Treatment Package: Provides 500+ datasets covering solid waste and wastewater treatment. For solid waste, coverage extends from generation and collection through transport and treatment to recycling or final disposal such as incineration and landfill.
Battery Package: Contains 900+ datasets spanning raw materials, electrode materials and electrolytes through cell manufacturing, battery packs and system integration. It supports both traction batteries and stationary energy-storage applications.
Closing Insights
The HiQLCD database addresses a recurring issue in international LCA: products may have substantial Chinese manufacturing or supply-chain content while assessments rely on generic or proxy background data. By representing Chinese technologies, regional conditions and industrial processes, the database can improve the geographic and technological relevance of product footprints. It can also be combined with ecoinvent in openLCA to model supply chains containing both Chinese and international processes.
Its applications extend beyond conventional LCA studies. HiQ identifies product carbon footprints, EPDs, corporate sustainability reporting, green supply-chain management and policy research as use cases. The database follows ISO 14040/14044 and ILCD requirements and supports applications involving ISO 14067, PEF and sector-specific methodologies such as EN 15804.
As of August 2026, HiQLCD is in version 1.5.0, with expanded coverage across major Chinese industries and supply chains. The database is available through platforms such as openLCA but is licensed separately from the software used to access it.
HiQLCD offers per-item and database licensing. PCF datasets cost €10 each (minimum €200), while full LCI/LCIA datasets cost €50 each (minimum €500). Single-user subscriptions and enterprise private-cloud licences are also available, with pricing on request.