The ReCiPe Midpoint (H) and ReCiPe Endpoint (H/A) LCIA methodologies (Version 1.04, March 2010) in SimaPro 7.2 software (Goedkopp et al., 2009) were used to evaluate the life-cycle impacts. The ReCiPe methodology aligns two families of methods for LCIA: the midpoint-oriented CML 2002 method (CML, 2001) and the endpoint-oriented Eco-indicator 99 method (Goedkoop and Spriensma, 2001). The indicators at two levels are determined, as: (i) eighteen midpoint indicators, and (ii) three endpoint indicators. The midpoint methodologywas used to understand the complexity of impacts to emissions to air, water and soil to the environment for the different biogas production and utilization scenarios investigated (see Section 3 later). The endpoint methodology was used to analyze actual damages on the endpoints. For the purpose of sustainability assessment and comparability of LCIA results or sensitivity analysis of biogas production and utilization pathways analyzed (see Section 4 later) the LCIA results were presented as single-score. The discussion in Sections 3 and 4 isolated the most significant outcomes, thereby identifying the potential ‘hot-spots’ where further mitigation of environmental impacts could be achieved. The impact assessment parameters, as well as the normalization
and weighting factors are summarized in Appendix Table A5.