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Process Data set: Itaipu hydroelectric power plant (en) en

Key Data Set Information
Location BR
Geographical representativeness description The dataset represents the country specific situation for hydroelectric power of Itaipu Binacional. Located on the Parana River, the seventh most voluminous river in the world, on the border between Brazil and Paraguay Latitude South 25º30' and Longitude West 54º30'). The Itaipu Power Plant takes advantage of the large flow of Parana River and of the local topography, which creates a lake of more than 29.0 km3 with an area of 1350 km2, resulting in the use of 107 km2/GW, or 9.33 MW/km2.
Reference year 1977
Name
Itaipu hydroelectric power plant
Classification
Class name : Hierarchy level
  • ILCD: Itaipu
General comment on data set The LCI covers all relevant process steps / technologies for the construction of an specific hydropower plant in Brazil. The inventory is based on data from interviews and power plant construction reports of Itaipu Binacional. The dam construction started in 1975, and finished during 1986. The first turbine began to operate some years earlier, in 1984. The current installed capacity of energy production of the overall system is 14.0 GW, which represented around 15% of the total installed capacity in Brazil (to notice that the energy produced is consumed in Brazil and in Paraguai). The estimate for the Itaipu average electricity production is 8.92E04 GWh/year, considering a 100 years life span.
Copyright No
Quantitative reference
Reference flow(s)
Time representativeness
Data set valid until 2074
Time representativeness description For data collection in the power plant construction reports it was considered 1977 (when most of the materials were acquired) to be the base year until 2003. While for the technical articles published on a monthly civil engineering magazine ot was considered the editions from 1976 to 1983.
Technological representativeness
Technology description including background system Electricity from water is generated in hydroelectric power plants. The Itaipu reservoir has an area of 1,350 km2, an extension of 7.9 km, an average depth of 22 meters, reaching 170m next the dam. The dam structure is made of concrete, earth and basalt rock. The system boundaries encompass the construction, the life-cycles of the most important material and energy consumptions (cement, steel, copper, diesel oil, lubricant oil), as well as construction site operation, material and workers transportation, and earthworks. Therefore, the dam dismantling and the residential site construction was not included in this LCI. The hydroelectric power plant operation considers a lifetime of 100 years.
LCI method and allocation
Type of data set Unit process, black box
LCI Method Principle Other
Deviation from LCI method principle / explanations The LCI method chosen was the "attributional method". No allocation procedure was made, due to the consideration of only one product and one function for the dam. Also, considering that only the ‘‘Definition’’ and ‘‘Inventory’’ phases of LCA were conducted in the original study, no impact assessment criteria definition was made. This process is a "gate-to-gate" dataset. Background emissions and burdens (e.g. from the production of materials consumed in the dam construction, transports, etc.) are not considered in this dataset, and should be modelled specifically for LCIA purposes. In the original study, complete system process data could be found.
Data sources, treatment and representativeness
Data cut-off and completeness principles The core of the product system under study is the Itaipu Power Plant itself. Besides, the product system’s boundaries encompass the processes involved with the delivery of the basic materials for the construction of the plant, such as cement, steel, copper, diesel oil and lubricants. (Ribeiro and da Silva, 2010). The main processes and flows excluded from the system boundaries are: the construction and operation of residential infrastructure of the construction site; manufacturing and transportation of the permanent equipment; transport of Brazilian petroleum oil; consumption of explosives and its related particulate emissions due to the use in excavation works and operation of the construction site; other materials used in the power plant (copper wiring, pipes, etc.), and use of chemicals in the construction and operation of the power plant (water treatment, cleaning, etc.) (Ribeiro 2003).
Deviation from data cut-off and completeness principles / explanations None.
Data selection and combination principles The Itaipu’s LCI data collection followed two sequential steps: the first one, related to Itaipu life-cycle, quantified the consumptions and emissions (inputs and outputs) of the dam construction, using primary data. On the following, a second data collection was conducted, estimating the life-cycle burdens of each of the former inputs, using international databases, complemented by primary data when necessary (Ribeiro and da Silva, 2010). The data existent in this dataset mainly comes from the first step (primary data) and consist in a "gate-to-gate" dataset, without background process emissions and burdens. In the case of direct air emissions, secondary data was used for estimate tthe life-cycle burdens of the use of some inputs, namely diesel combustion in civil engineering works during construction).
Deviation from data selection and combination principles / explanations None.
Data treatment and extrapolations principles The input 'excavated rock' was substituted by basaltic rock considering a density of 1525 kg/m3 (Ribeiro 2003; Ribeiro and da Silva 2010). For the MARBRAX TR-50 (Ribeiro 2003) lubricant oil it was considered a density of 0.875 t/m3. For the excavated earth it was considered a density of 1150 kg /m3 obtained from the arithmetic mean of the values presented in the Oxisol (Ribeiro 2003).
Data source(s) used for this data set
Sampling procedure The dam construction was modelled using primary data from interviews and power plant construction reports. The interviews were conducted with some civil work specialists who had worked in Itaipu’s project and construction. The power plant construction reports (from 1977 to 2003) included lists of materials and equipment used, original blueprints, reports from the different engineering companies that worked in the power plant project and construction, and technical articles published on a monthly civil engineering magazine (editions from 1976 to 1983). The detailed description of the data can be found in Ribeiro (2003).
Data collection period The dataset primary data was collected in 2003, taking into consideration data and informations published from 1977 to 2003.
Completeness
Completeness of product model No statement
Commissioner and goal
Project IBICT "Adaptação de Inventários ao Contexto Brasileiro"
Intended applications This dataset was constructed for IBICT, with the ultimate goal to be disseminated publicly. It was construction to be used in conjunction with the "Electricity from Itaipu power plant, at power plant, 1 kWh" process.
Data generator
Data set generator / modeller
Data entry by
Time stamp (last saved) 2015-05-26T13:38:52.784-03:00
Data set format(s)
Data entry by
Publication and ownership
UUID 49cff722-26d2-322d-a275-794e91dba4d5
Data set version 00.00.000
Unchanged re-publication of
Copyright No
Access and use restrictions All information can be accessed by everybody.

Inputs

Type of flow Classification Flow Mean amount Resulting amount Minimum amount Maximum amount
Elementary flow Elementary flows / resource / in ground 4.88E10 kg4.88E10 kg
Elementary flow Elementary flows / water / river 2.16E9 kg2.16E9 kg
Product flow Materials production / Other mineralic materials 2.48E9 kg2.48E9 kg
Product flow Materials production / Others chemicals 1312500.0 kg1312500.0 kg
Product flow Production residues in life cycle / Waste for recovery 5270000.0 kg5270000.0 kg
Product flow Production residues in life cycle / Waste for recovery 3.0E8 kg3.0E8 kg
Product flow Energy carriers and technologies / Electricity 9.5E9 MJ9.5E9 MJ
Product flow Transport services / Road 3.9E9 t*km3.9E9 t*km
Product flow Transport services / Road 1.5E10 m1.5E10 m
Product flow Materials production / Others chemicals 3370.0 m33370.0 m3
Product flow Materials production / Metals and semimetals 5480000.0 kg5480000.0 kg
Product flow Energy carriers and technologies / Crude oil based fuels 2.95E8 kg2.95E8 kg
Elementary flow Elementary flows / soil / unspecified 2.71E10 kg2.71E10 kg
Elementary flow Elementary flows / resource / in ground 3.68E9 kg3.68E9 kg

Outputs

Type of flow Classification Flow Mean amount Resulting amount Minimum amount Maximum amount
Product flow Energy carriers and technologies / Hydro 1.0 Item(s)1.0 Item(s)
Elementary flow Elementary flows / air / low population density 874000.0 kg874000.0 kg
Elementary flow Elementary flows / air / low population density 1.26E7 kg1.26E7 kg
Elementary flow Elementary flows / air / low population density 303000.0 kg303000.0 kg
Elementary flow Elementary flows / air / low population density 845000.0 kg845000.0 kg
Elementary flow Elementary flows / air / low population density 4620000.0 kg4620000.0 kg
Elementary flow Elementary flows / air / low population density 9.26E8 kg9.26E8 kg
Elementary flow Elementary flows / air / low population density 1300000.0 kg1300000.0 kg