Closing the Loop: Enhancing Railway Assets Circularity through Sustainable Lifecycle Management (CirculaRail)

Railways are proven as sustainable modes of transport, yet environmental concerns arise due to material impacts like steel, concrete, and asphalt. These materials contribute to 80% of the material-related climate impact. Hence, it's crucial to minimize their usage in the construction, operation, and maintenance of railway networks.

Therefore, a paradigm shift from linear economy towards CE is inevitable to fulfill government and societal demands.

This project aims to extend the lifetime of railway assets by predictive maintenance, reducing life cycle costs, and environmental & societal impacts while practicing the implementation of CE framework.

The aim can be achieved by the following objectives:

• Mapping railway assets life management process highlighting circular model requirements, data aggregation and MFA,
• Developing new Circular Predictive Maintenance by incorporating sustainability measures and future climate scenarios into maintenance practices.
• Identifying optimal CE scenarios for railway assets by integrating MFA and LCSA factors.

The methodology implemented in this project can have a significant impact of 5-10% reduction in the resource consumption, resulting in less CO2 emission utilizing proposed innovative CE tools.

Work Packages

This project aims to develop and implement a circular economy framework, including principles, strategies, and operational practices for integrating a CE model in the operation and maintenance of railway assets. This project will be implemented by the seven work packages.

Project Partners

Trafikverket – Problem owner – Trafikverket will provide data collection related to infrastructure failures and maintenance, expert judgment in data processing, risk and vulnerability assessment, and climate adaptation measures. TRV will support project in all WPs.

LTU– Academia – LTU will perform data processing and analytics related to climate change and infrastructure failures, implement risk and vulnerability assessment, recommend climate change adaptation measures and project management, and disseminate results, active in all WPs.

Järnvägstekniskt Centrum (JVTC) will act as bridge between LTU and different stakeholders and support us in WP7.

Luleå kommun (municipality) will be active in competence-building and dissemination activities through their railway educational program at Yrkeshögskolan, Järnvägsprogram and support us in WP7.

Duroc Rail AB have the capacity, experience and knowledge for rolling stock’s wheel set renovation located in Luleå. Moreover, they are interested in bringing sustainability factors in their maintenance decision models.

Creaternity center (LTU) utilizes digitalization to achieve a circular use of materials and efficient use of energy, thus achieving a carbon- and resource-neutral society. Creaternity by gathering researchers from many subjects, takes a holistic approach to the industry's and societies's sustainability challenges, which leads to new innovations and support us in WP3 and WP5.

Omicold AB: expertise in railway engineering in cold climates, circular economy factors in the railway, WP2.

Dissemination and Publications

This part will be updated soon.