Evaluation of Gas Emissions, Energy Consumption and Production Costs of Warm Mix Asphalt (WMA) Involving Natural Zeolite and Reclaimed Asphalt Pavement (RAP)

Alejandra T. Calabi-Floody, Gonzalo A. Valdés-Vidal, Elsa Sanchez-Alonso and Luis A. Mardones-Parra
Additional contact information
Alejandra T. Calabi-Floody: Department of Civil Engineering, Universidad de La Frontera, Temuco 1145, Chile
Gonzalo A. Valdés-Vidal: Department of Civil Engineering, Universidad de La Frontera, Temuco 1145, Chile
Elsa Sanchez-Alonso: Department of Civil Engineering, Universidad de La Frontera, Temuco 1145, Chile
Luis A. Mardones-Parra: Department of Civil Engineering, Universidad de La Frontera, Temuco 1145, Chile

Sustainability, 2020, vol. 12, issue 16, 1-16

Abstract: Asphalt mixture is the most widely used material in road construction, and the industry is developing more sustainable technologies. Warm mix asphalt (WMA) is a promising alternative as it saves energy, reduces fuel consumption and generates fewer gas and fume emissions, while maintaining a similar performance to hot mix asphalt (HMA). This paper presents an evaluation of the gas emissions at laboratory scale, as well as the energy consumption and production costs, of five types of WMA with the addition of natural zeolite. The control mixture was a HMA manufactured at 155 °C. The mixtures evaluated were two WMA manufactured at 135 °C with 0.3% and 0.6% natural zeolite, and three WMA with partial replacement of raw materials by 10%, 20% and 30% of reclaimed asphalt pavement (RAP); these mixtures, called WMA–RAP, were manufactured at 125 °C, 135 °C and 145 °C, respectively. The results indicated that all the mixtures evaluated reduced CO and CO 2 emissions by 2–6% and 17–37%, respectively. The energy consumption presented a 13% decrease. In the current situation, the production costs for WMA with 0.3 and 0.6% natural zeolite are slightly higher than the control mixture, because the saving achieved in fuel consumption is lower than the current cost of the additive. On the other hand, WMA manufactured with the addition of natural zeolite and RAP could produce cost savings of up to 25%, depending on the amounts of RAP and natural zeolite used.

Keywords: warm mix asphalt; natural zeolite; gas emissions; energy consumption; production costs (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/16/6410/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/16/6410/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:12:y:2020:i:16:p:6410-:d:396717

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().