MADITRACE (Material and Digital Traceability for the Certification of Critical Raw Materials)
MaDiTraCe developed material and digital traceability technologies for critical raw materials and integrated them into a certification system and a Digital Product Passport, so that companies can prove the origin and the sustainability of the materials in their products.
MaDiTraCe aimed to reinforce the transparency, reliability and sustainability of complex critical raw material (CRM) supply chains. The project focused on four commodities that are essential for the energy transition (lithium, cobalt, natural graphite, and rare earths (neodymium)), which are used in batteries and permanent magnets for e-mobility and wind energy. MaDiTraCe developed two independent families of traceability technologies: material-based solutions (material fingerprinting and artificial tracers) and digital solutions (decentralised, blockchain-enabled certificates). Both were combined with the CERA 4in1 certification system and made compatible with the EU Digital Product Passport.
The Technical University of Leoben led the work package “Assessment of needs and gaps in due diligence”, which built the knowledge base for the whole project. The team took stock of existing due diligence initiatives, regulations, standards and certification schemes for primary and secondary raw materials, analysed their strengths and weaknesses, and benchmarked voluntary sustainability standards against regulatory requirements such as the EU Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive, the Battery Regulation and national supply chain legislation. This work showed where current practices fall short and what industry needs in order to comply.
The Technical University of Leoben also contributed to the material-based traceability work and led the development of laboratory fingerprinting methods. This included the geochemical, mineralogical and isotopic characterisation of ores, concentrates and processed materials, the build-up of a reference database for natural graphite, the testing of portable on-site techniques such as XRF and LIBS, and interlaboratory quality control together with the other analytical partners.
The consortium brought together 14 partners from 7 European countries and was coordinated by BRGM, the French Geological Survey. By combining geoscientific, digital and regulatory expertise, MaDiTraCe delivered tools that support Europe’s access to responsibly sourced critical raw materials. The project results remain publicly available through the project website and the MaDiTraCe Zenodo community.
Funding programme: Horizon Europe: Digital, Industry and Space
HORIZON-CL4-2022-RESILIENCE-01-05 - Technological solutions for tracking raw material flows in complex supply chains (RIA); Grant Agreement No. 101091502
Total Project Budget: 11.024 million
Our budget: 1.518 million
Our role: Work package leader (WP1-Assessment of need and gaps in due diligence) and scientific partner
Partner: 14
Duration: 42 months
Start Date: January 2023
Responsible: Univ.-Prof. Dipl.-Ing. Dr.mont. Michael TOST
Contributors: Mag. Paulina Fernandez, Dr. Viorel Nita
©Maditrace