Eco-Friendly Ashphalt

by Darren

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Eco-friendly asphalt is being researched by a team of U.S. scientists. Currently, 90% of all roads in the United States use asphalt, which is not in the least bit environmentally friendly. There are two major areas the Asphalt Research Consortium thinks it can improve current asphalt.

1. By increasing the amount of recycled materials used in asphalt
2. By increasing the energy efficiency of asphalt

The United States hasn’t attempted to improve asphalt since the 1970s, with the Superpave program. The current initiative calls for a larger use of “cold mix” asphalt.

“At US refineries today, there are very mature, established specifications for hot binders - our paving grade asphalts,” he said. “But for emulsions, there is no clear agreement on how to define the quality. So, we have emulsions already, but we don’t produce them as much because the specifications aren’t as clear,” said Hussain Bahia, a civil engineering professor.

Asphalt is a byproduct of the crude oil refining process. The Asphalt Research Consortium wants to run asphalt through a set of rigorous tests, in order to study results and make recommendations on how asphalt can be improved.

It’s good to see some research being done into the area at long last.

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