Summary of changes to the 2026 Fuel Life Cycle Assessment Model

September 10, 2026

1. Overview

This document summarizes the changes made to the Government of Canada Fuel Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) Model (the Model) since the version published in August 2024. It refers to the specific sections of the Model Methodology that were updated to reflect those changes.

Since August 2024, Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC) released 13 pre-publications outlining proposed changes to the Model. These pre-publications aimed to increase transparency and provide stakeholders with an opportunity to provide feedback. All comments received were reviewed, and final changes made for the 2026 formal publication are outlined in Section 2.1.

ECCC also implemented additional changes to the Model based on input from stakeholders and other groups. Due to time constraints, these changes were not pre-published. Section 2.2 presents these changes that were made for the 2026 formal publication of the Model.

Finally, Section 3 presents the main changes to the User Manual.

2. Summary of changes

2.1. Changes since the pre-publications for the formal publication

The changes made following the various pre-publications are described in the following sections.

2.1.1. New and updated processes for non-fertilizer related chemicals

Compared to the Pre-publication: New and updated processes for non-fertilizer related chemicals, the following changes were made:

• Transport of chemical products to end users in Canada was included in the modelling
• New Canada-specific production processes (designated with a “[CA]” location tag) were added to the Model that represent production using Canadian electricity and chemical inputs, as well as transport exclusively within Canada
• All other chemical processes will have a tag “[RoW]” (Rest of world) to distinguish them from the Canadian processes where appropriate
• The methanol production process is now based on data from the Methanex’s 2025 Sustainability Report (for the 2024 reference year)
• The citric acid production process account for the concentration in solution of hydrochloric acid and urea in the Canadian market
• The processes for crude glycerin and refined glycerin were removed from the Model Data Library

For a complete description of the modelling approach included for these processes in the 2026 Model version, please refer to Section 3.1 of the Methodology.

2.1.2. New and updated processes for combustion emission factors

Compared to the Pre-publication: New and updated processes for combustion emission factors, the combustion emission factors have been updated using the 2026 National Inventory Report (NIR) for the reference year 2024, and three new processes have been added to the Model:

• Compressed renewable natural gas combustion, no upstream emissions
• Liquefied renewable natural gas combustion, no upstream emissions
• Petcoke combustion, no upstream emissions

For a complete description of the modelling approach included for these processes in the 2026 Model version, please refer to Section 3.2 of the Methodology.

2.1.3. New and updated national grid processes for countries other than Canada and the United States

Compared to the Pre-publication: New and updated national grid electricity processes for countries other than Canada and the United States, new processes were added to the Model for the national electricity grids for member, partner and accession candidate countries of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).

The data from the International Energy Agency (IEA) for the reference year 2023 or 2024 were used, depending on data availability.

The new and updated electricity generation technology processes were incorporated into the modelling.

For a complete description of the modelling approach included for these processes in the 2026 Model version, please refer to Section 3.3 of the Methodology.

2.1.4.  Updated electricity generation technology processes

Compared to the Pre-publication: New and updated electricity generation technology processes, the following changes were made:

• For all offsite generation processes, the 2026 NIR for the 2024 reference year is used to model distribution losses and SF₆ emissions, as opposed to the 2025 NIR
• For all fossil onsite generation processes (excluding natural gas processes) and for nuclear generation, fuel consumption is sourced from Statistics Canada Table 25-10-0084-01 for the 2024 reference year, as opposed to the same table for the 2023 reference year
• For generation from a natural gas converted boiler, the boiler efficiency is modelled using data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration for the 2024 reference year, as opposed to the 2023 reference year

For a complete description of the modelling approach included for these processes in the 2026 Model version, please refer to Section 3.3 of the Methodology.

2.1.5. Updated grid electricity processes for the United States

Compared to the Pre-publication: Updated United States grid electricity and excess electricity to grid processes, the processes now use the second revision of the 2025 Emissions and Generation Resource Integrated Database (eGRID) (eGRID) data for the 2023 reference year (as opposed to the first revision used in the pre-publication).

For a complete description of the modelling approach included for these processes in the 2026 Model version, please refer to Section 3.3 of the Methodology.

2.1.6. Updated grid electricity processes for Canada

There are no changes to the modelling of the Canadian electricity grid processes since the Revised pre-publication: Canadian grid electricity and excess electricity to grid processes.

For a complete description of the modelling approach included for these processes in the 2026 Model version, refer to Sections 3.3.2 and 3.3.3 of the Methodology.

2.1.7. New yellow grease production processes for the settling rendering method

There are no changes to the modelling of the yellow grease production processes since the Pre-publication: Proposed new yellow grease production processes for the settling rendering method,

For a complete description of the modelling approach included for these processes in the 2026 Model version, please refer to Section 3.5.6 of the Methodology.

2.1.8. Updated propane, natural gas, compressed natural gas, and liquefied natural gas processes

Compared to the Pre-publication: Updated processes for natural gas and propane and the Pre-publication: New and updated processes for compressed natural gas and liquefied natural gas, the natural gas (NG) and propane processes were updated using the emission factors from the 2026 NIR for the reference year 2024. As a result, the carbon intensity (CI) for the compressed NG (CNG) and liquefied NG (LNG) processes were updated accordingly.

For a complete description of the modelling approach included for these processes in the 2026 Model version, please refer to Section 3.6.2 of the Methodology.

2.1.9. New combustion processes for bagasse and agricultural residues

Compared to the Pre-publication: New combustion processes for bagasse and agricultural residues, transportation of bagasse to an end user is excluded from the modelling. The resulting process for bagasse only contains the emissions relating to its combustion.

The modelling approach for the combustion process for agricultural residues remains the same as in the pre-publication.

For a complete description of the modelling approach included for these processes in the 2026 Model version, please refer to Section 3.7.1 of the Methodology.

2.1.10. Updated processes for agricultural crops

There are no changes to the modelling of the crops processes since the Pre-publication: Updated processes for agricultural crops.

For a complete description of the modelling approach included for these processes in the 2026 Model version, please refer to Section 3.5.2 of the Methodology.

2.2. Changes not presented in pre-publications

The following sections describe changes made in the formal publication that were not part of any pre-publications.

2.2.1. Predefined chemical mixes

The processes for predefined chemical mixes were updated in line with the addition of Canada-specific and “Rest of world” chemical processes, as mentioned in section 2.1.1 of this document.

It is assumed that each chemical in the predefined chemical mixture with a Canadian process in the Model uses equal parts of that chemical sourced from Canada and “Rest of world”. Otherwise, the chemical is entirely represented by the “Rest of world” process.

For a complete description of the modelling approaches for these processes in the 2026 Model version, please refer to Section 3.1.4 of the Methodology.

2.2.2. Fertilizer related chemicals (including urea and UAN)

The processes for fertilizer-related chemicals were updated in-line with the changes made to non-fertilizer chemicals described in Section 2.1.1.

A new Model process was added to represent the production of phosphate rock. Data on production inputs was taken from GREET 2025.

The name of the process for the production of urea-ammonium nitrate (UAN) was changed to “Urea ammonium nitrate, as N (UAN)” to properly represent the function unit of kg of N in UAN. A similar change was made to ammonium nitrate, renamed “Ammonium nitrate, as N (NH4NO3)”.

For a description of the complete modelling approaches included for these processes in the 2026 Model version, please refer to Section 3.1.1 of the Methodology.

2.2.3. Agrochemicals

The processes for agrochemicals related to nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium fertilizers were updated to use material inputs from Cheminfo Services Inc. (2016). This includes choosing the geographic scope of production (either Canada or Rest of World) representative of the majority of each fertilizer type used in Canada.

The Model process for pesticides was updated to use rolled-up emission data from R&D GREET 2025.

Transportation inputs were added to the ‘Potassium fertilizer’ and ‘Sulfur fertilizer’ processes. These transportation inputs were developed in-line with the methodology given in Section 3.1.1 of the Methodology and pertain to Canadian transport.

For a complete description of the modelling approaches included for these processes, please refer to Section 3.1.2 of the Methodology.

2.2.4. Configurable processes for animal fats, corn oil and oil from oilseeds

The configurable processes for animal fats, corn oil and oil from oil seeds have been updated to allow Model users to adjust the transport flow amount to fit their situation using an openLCA concept called a parameter. A parameter is a shared variable that represents a calculation rule or formula rather than a fixed value and can be used in multiple processes across the Model. Model users can now multiply the distance traveled with a parameter representing the allocated mass of product being transported. The parameter for each material is included in the Indicators and parameters/Global parameters folder. Users can modify the value of the transport flow to represent a specific distance by replacing the zero with the appropriate load-distance.

For a complete description of the modelling approach included for these processes in the 2026 Model version, please refer to Sections 4.2.1, 4.2.3 and 4.2.5 of the Methodology, respectively.

3. Changes to the User Manual

The Model User Manual has been updated to reflect changes in the Model Database and the current version of the openLCA software. The following changes were made:

• Creation of new screenshots based on version 2.6.2 of openLCA (note that there are no known compatibility issues between version 2.6.2 and other versions of openLCA 2.0)
• Adjustment of some text to account for changes in the Model Database
• Addition of new sections: one based on global parameters (Section 5.2.2) and one for calculating multiple CIs at once (Section 5.4.2)