Predge strengthens sustainable asset management with NRPCES

Jan 14, 2026 | Railway

Did you know: When allocating train operation emissions to components, roughly one third of a wheelset’s lifetime CO₂e in Northern Sweden comes from manufacturing and end-of-life processing. Prolonging wheelset life through condition monitoring and smart maintenance therefore delivers meaningful climate benefits.1

Predge Strengthens Sustainable Asset Management Through the NRPCES Project

Industrial companies across Europe are facing increasing pressure to balance economic performance with sustainability goals. As equipment lifecycles stretch over decades and environmental regulations tighten, organizations need smarter ways to understand when to repair, refurbish, or replace critical assets.
The NRPCES (New Replacement Policy Considering Environmental Sustainability) project is tackling this challenge head-on. This international R&D initiative brings together leading industry and academic partners from Sweden, Belgium, and Portugal to develop a pioneering digital tool that determines the optimal replacement time for industrial equipment, while also tracking real-time CO₂ emissions.

At the heart of NRPCES lies a vision: enabling circular, sustainable, and cost-efficient industry through data-driven decision support. And Predge is proud to play a key role.

A Smarter, Sustainable Way to Manage Industrial Assets

The NRPCES project is building an ICT-enabled decision-support system that integrates real cost data, environmental parameters, condition-monitoring insights and advanced predictive analytics.

This combination allows companies to make truly informed decisions about asset repair, refurbishment, or replacement, balancing financial performance with environmental impact.

For years, Predge has supported the railway industry with advanced condition monitoring and predictive maintenance solutions. NRPCES gives Predge the opportunity to push this expertise even further by empowering organizations to reduce both their total cost of ownership and their environmental footprint.

Within the project, Predge is contributing to:

Integrating LCC and Environmental Impact into Predictive Analytics
Through NRPCES, Predge is incorporating Life Cycle Cost (LCC) modeling and environmental impact assessments, key ingredients for data-driven sustainability.

Optimizing Refurbishment and Replacement Strategies
By combining its predictive maintenance schemes with NRPCES methodologies, Predge can provide customers with optimized recommendations on when to refurbish or replace assets. Resulting in reduced downtime, lower maintenance costs and a measurable decrease in carbon footprint.

Strengthening Sustainable Decision-Making for Customers
Participation in NRPCES enables Predge to accelerate the development of tools that support customers’ long-term sustainability strategies. This includes deeper integration of CO₂ indicators into maintenance planning and asset lifecycle models.

A Collaborative Effort Driving European Innovation

NRPCES brings together a powerful consortium:

Sweden: Damill AB, Predge AB, Trafikverket, Luleå University of Technology, Mälardalen University
Belgium: Sirris
Portugal: Dosta Tec, FEUP, ISEP

For more information, visit nrpces.eu or New Replacement Policy Considering Environment Sustainability (NRPCES) | Luleå tekniska universitet and follow the project on LinkedIn.
1 The percentage refers to a system-allocated lifecycle assessment, where a share of freight train operational emissions (electric traction) is attributed to an individual wheelset based on axle load and distance travelled (~1 million km). This differs from a component-only LCA (e.g. wheelset EPDs following worldsteel guidance), where manufacturing typically accounts for >90% of cradle-to-grave CO₂e because no operational energy is assigned to the component itself. Recycling credits (Module D) are not included.