Scope and Limitations¶

Dynamic Characterization¶

optimex supports both static and dynamic Life Cycle Impact Assessment (LCIA). For impacts where timing matters — particularly climate change — dynamic metrics like Cumulative Radiative Forcing (CRF) or dynamic Global Warming Potential (GWP) capture how different greenhouse gases accumulate and decay in the atmosphere over time. Static characterization (e.g., GWP100) can still be used for impact categories where timing is less critical.

Data Requirements¶

Time-explicit LCO requires data on temporal distributions of processes, temporal evolution of production systems, and (optionally) time-specific characterization factors. When temporal information is unavailable, optimex defaults to static values, allowing analyses to proceed with partial temporal coverage.