Sphera Releases MLC Database 2025.1 with Major Battery and Energy Updates

Sphera has released its Managed LCA Content (MLC) database update 2025.1, with particular emphasis on batteries, energy systems, and chemical industry datasets.

Key Points

• Over 600 new datasets added, including 300 in base databases and 300 in Premium bundles

• First-ever sodium-ion battery data introduced alongside expanded lithium-ion coverage

• Future electricity grid mixes now include CCUS and hydrogen fuel cell models

• Harmonized steam cracker models developed in collaboration with PlasticsEurope

Battery Data Transformation

The 2025.1 release marks a substantial evolution in battery Life Cycle Assessment capabilities. The update includes refinements to lithium-ion battery data across cell-level, pack-level, and chemistry-specific parameters. Perhaps most notably, this release introduces sodium-ion battery data for the first time, reflecting the growing commercial interest in this emerging technology. These additions provide LCA practitioners with better tools for evaluating battery performance and sustainability across the energy storage sector.

Energy Sector Advances

The energy sector updates include updated greenhouse gas emission factors for hydropower plants and future electricity grid mixes that incorporate carbon capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS) as well as hydrogen fuel cell models. This forward-looking data enables more sophisticated scenario modeling for products with long service lives.

Chemical Industry Refinements

Working with LCA consultants from PlasticsEurope, Sphera has harmonized its steam cracker models to deliver comparable results across different production routes. Specific improvements include:

• Updated production routes for acetone cyanohydrin (ACH), acetylene (ethyne), and propylene oxide (PO)

• New datasets for Chinese caprolactam production reflecting country-specific technologies

• Updated propylene granulate production data

Agricultural Data Modernization

The release continues Sphera's effort to modernize agricultural datasets, with data now transferred to the new Sphera Agricultural Model. This systematic update ensures consistency and improves the representation of agricultural supply chains in LCA studies.

Data Verification

All MLC datasets undergo third-party review through Sphera's collaboration with DEKRA, ensuring data quality, accuracy, and scientific robustness. This verification process is critical for users conducting assessments that require third-party assured data. The battery data additions are timely given regulatory pressure around battery carbon footprints under the EU Battery Regulation, which will require Battery Passports starting February 2027. The naming convention "CUP 2025.1" (Content Update Package) indicates this is the first major content update of 2025. Sphera's MLC database includes over 20,000 datasets covering more than 60 industries. Users can access the update through their LCA for Experts software.