MASTRO Project - Life Cycle Costing and Assessment in TransportOctober 2019

BSRIA is taking part in the major European project supporting shift towards smarter, safer and more sustainable transport.

Over the last 60 years, EU transport industry has progressed substantially and continues to make a significant contribution to European prosperity, accounting for 4.5% of total employment in the EU and creating about the same percentage of gross domestic product. However, new developments in the relevant industries are needed to meet the EU goals by 2020 and 2050, as well as maintain and enhance the competitiveness of the European transport industry. The shift to smarter, safer and more sustainable transport through new developments in the automotive, aerospace and infrastructure industries is the main motivation of the MASTRO project. The project commenced in December 2017 and will be active for 3.5 years.

Project objectives and scope of research

The overall objective of the MASTRO project is to develop intelligent bulk materials for smart applications in the transport sector incorporating several self-responsiveness properties. The aim is to increase consumer safety, component life-span, and performance, while reducing maintenance and manufacturing costs and through-life greenhouse gas emissions. 

Self-responsiveness functionalities will be achieved by incorporating electrical conductive nanomaterials like multi walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) and graphite-based nanomaterials into smart lightweight polymer composites together with asphalt and concrete formulations. These self-responsive functionalities include the ability of the material to sense, heal, cure, protect, de-ice and heat. 

The functionality of the intelligent bulk materials will be incorporated in various critical transport sector components, such as pavements, aircraft wing leading edges and car bumpers. These components will be demonstrated under relevant conditions at prototype level for the aerospace, automotive, and transport infrastructure sectors. 

Project stakeholders

MASTRO multidisciplinary consortium is made of 17 partners from 6 EU countries, with a wide range of expertise: ACCIONA, ALKÈ, Applynano Solutions, ARKEMA France, AXIA Innovation, CETMA, CENTI, CITEVE, DIAD Group, Embraer Portugal, Le Centre Technique Industriel de la Plasturgie et des Composites, PINOUT Solutions, Superior Graphite Deutschland, Universitat d’ Alacant, Università degli Studi di Salerno and The University of Sheffield. It covers the whole value chain needed to achieve the main scientific and technological goals. 

All the efforts devoted in the MASTRO project to fulfil its objectives can be grouped into the following tasks:

• Research activities developed at small to medium scale at laboratory environment
• Up-scaling of the manufacturing processes, products and models, ending with prototype testing
• Validation of the technologies developed according to the requirements and needs set by the end users
• Activities focused on boosting the future market uptake

BSRIA is leading a work package

BSRIA is involved in the project as a leader of one of the nine work packages, responsible for the tasks which aim to demonstrate economic competitiveness and evaluate environmental impact of the new products in comparison with state of the art practice. 

In the first year of the project, BSRIA has successfully developed Life Cycle Costing and Life Cycle Assessment models of state-of-the-practice existing products, which will be used as a benchmark for comparison with the innovations of the MASTRO project. Additionally, within the same work package, other partners are working on activities related to the health and safety evaluation and regulatory compliance of MASTRO materials, as well as standardisation and training.

BSRIA has been recognized as one of the experts in the field of LCA and LCC modelling, having already successfully completed these activities on 4 EU funded projects before. With the demonstrated knowledge and access to required tools, BSRIA is in a position to apply these processes to any product or system, be it nanomaterials, a commercial building, or an HVAC system.

This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under the grant Agreement no 760940. The material presented and views expressed here are the responsibility of the author(s) only. The EC takes no responsibility for any use made of the information set out.