In the linked FET project ICARUS (Nr. 713514), coordinated by UBU, a portfolio of LCA and nanosafety assessment tools was developed to determine environmental indicators, emissions and the mass/energy balance related to different materials/solutions adopted for the production of coarsening-resistant nano-crystalline (nc) alloys for aerospace applications, as well as to ensure their safety at all stages of their life-cycle. Novel nc-alloys produced within ICARUS have enhanced radiation tolerance (based on refractory metals) and light-weight high strength (based on Al, Mg, Ti), which makes their application in aerospace and related industries highly promising. During the course of these tasks, in particular the LCA analyses, evident limitations were found on the availability of valid characterisation factors (CF) to quantify the potential environmental footprint of the novel nanostructured alloys developed by ICARUS. This limitation is a general situation for freshwater ecotoxicity, human toxicity cancer and human toxicity non-cancer impact categories, as recently highlighted by the European Commision´s Joint Research Centre (EC-JRC) . Numerous data are needed to calculate each CF, and time spent to calculate is non-negligible (typically several hours per substance for data collection and review, depending on available information). The ICARUS-INAS project aims to push the safety and eco-sustainability assessment of nanostructured materials a step forward, by offering a novel integrated toxicology-LCA assessment approach to a steadily growing number of potential stakeholders involved in the nanomaterials development field.
The ICARUS-INAS project aims to ensure that high quality characterization factors (CFs) are specifically determined for novel nanostructured materials to assess and quantify their environmental impact over their entire life cycle, through an appropriate portfolio of adapted toxicity tests, aiming to offer a step forward in the environmental safety and sustainability assessment of novel (nano)materials. The underlying innovation idea of this proposal (which is mainly addressing exploitation and dissemination activities), is the development of a certified Integrated Nanostructures Assessment-Service (INAS) for the biological impact analysis of nanostructures combining toxicology and Life Cycle Assessment (LCA). A portfolio of in vitro tests, including rapid high-throughput tests and mechanistic toxicity projects applying omics technologies, will be offered for the assessment of the human and environmental safety of nanostructured alloys and other nanomaterials, which could be implemented in the customer's facilities too when requested. The toxicology assessment will be tailored as well to the chemical-related impacts for which CFs are necessary within the LCA analysis, allowing a full harmonization between the available toxicity data and the customer’s products life cycle assessment. In preparation of the INAS service, the exploitation, IPR and dissemination strategies will be defined and implemented in this project, based on in-depth market analysis, business planning and other exploitation-related activities.
The main objectives of the project are 1) the validation and certification of a set of tools and protocols previously developed in the linked ICARUS project 2) to develop an integrated Nanosafety and LCA assessment service strategy for academic and industrial customers, through 3) an accompanying dissemination and exploitation strategy.
