BRAVO develops roadmap for the transition to lead-free brass

As the brass industry faces a major transformation, the BRAVO research project has brought together researchers and companies to identify bottlenecks and find shared solutions. The result is an industry-anchored roadmap that highlights four critical challenges.

Blyfri mässingsvalidering för industriell implementering (BRAVO) is a feasibility study funded in one of the first research calls from Swedish Metals & Minerals in 2024 and was carried out between October 2024 and June this year (2025).

The brass industry is facing an essential transition as lead as an alloying element must be phased out to meet stricter regulations, particularly the EU’s new requirements for materials in contact with drinking water, which will apply from the end of 2026. The phase-out brings several technical challenges, especially in machining and casting.

“Much work has already been done in previous research projects. The aim of BRAVO was therefore to identify the remaining challenges and create a sustainable way forward for the industry. The goal was to develop a roadmap that clearly summarises the milestones and activities required to ensure a sustainable transition to lead-free brass,” says Charlotta Obitz, RISE, coordinator for BRAVO.

Solving this issue is highly significant, partly due to the well-known health risks of lead, and partly because today’s brass industry is built on a circular system where more than 90 percent of the material is recycled. A substantial part of this consists of chips from manufacturing processes and scrap from recycling companies. When lead is phased out, the supply of recycled raw material will not be sufficient during a transition period, which risks increasing the use of virgin material and thereby raising the climate footprint. To avoid this, adjustments in the system and the development of new methods that support a continued circular value chain will be required.

The main purpose of BRAVO was therefore to identify the barriers and challenges the industry must address to complete the transition in time while also preventing other environmental and resource-related issues. During the project, it became clear that one of the major remaining challenges lay in optimising material flows along the entire value chain. This required balancing climate impact, material properties, and economic factors. To address these questions, the project group was expanded with expertise in business models and techno-economic analysis – competence that will remain central in upcoming projects.

“The collaboration between the eleven partners in the project consortium worked very well and was an important factor behind the project’s results. Discussions were often highly engaged, and the work also attracted new actors who have chosen to join the continuation projects,” says Charlotta Obitz.

Through workshops and knowledge exchange, a shared understanding was established regarding the challenges and possible solutions. The roadmap has also been broadly anchored among actors outside the consortium to ensure that the results are relevant and useful for the entire sector.

The project’s key result is the identification of four critical challenges that must be solved to enable a sustainable transition to lead-free brass: recirculation, lead removal, robustness, and machinability. These challenges, together with proposed milestones and activities, are summarised in the roadmap developed by the project. The roadmap is well anchored both in Sweden and across Europe and has contributed to two successful applications within the Swedish Metals & Minerals calls.

The results from BRAVO now feed directly into a newly approved full-scale project, BRAVO II. The roadmap forms the basis for the continued work, which will focus on developing robust lead-free alloys with strong long-term properties, optimising machinability, and establishing efficient methods for lead removal with low climate impact. Work on recirculation streams and business models will be intensified to maximise the use of recycled material and reduce the need for virgin raw material. Techno-economic analysis will be an important tool in this process.

“The continued close collaboration between industry partners and research institutes is crucial for translating the insights from the feasibility study into practical solutions and thereby contributing to a circular, robust, and competitive Nordic brass industry,” says Charlotta Obitz.