When Physical Chemistry Meets Circular Economy to Solve Environmental Issues: How the ReScA Project Aims at Using Waste Pyrolysis Products to Improve and Rejuvenate Bitumens

Paolino Caputo, Pietro Calandra, Valeria Loise, Adolfo Le Pera, Ana-Maria Putz, Abraham A. Abe, Luigi Madeo, Bagdat Teltayev, Maria Laura Luprano, Michela Alfè, Valentina Gargiulo, Giovanna Ruoppolo and Cesare Oliviero Rossi
Additional contact information
Paolino Caputo: Department of Chemistry and Chemical Technologies, University of Calabria, 87036 Rende, Italy
Pietro Calandra: National Research Council, Institute of Nanostructured Materials (CNR-ISMN), 00015 Monterotondo, Italy
Valeria Loise: Department of Chemistry and Chemical Technologies, University of Calabria, 87036 Rende, Italy
Adolfo Le Pera: Calabra Maceri e Servizi S.p.A. Via M. Polo, 87036 Rende, Italy
Ana-Maria Putz: “Coriolan Drăgulescu” Institute of Chemistry, Romanian Academy, 24 Mihai Viteazu Bvd., 300223 Timisoara, Romania
Abraham A. Abe: Department of Chemistry and Chemical Technologies, University of Calabria, 87036 Rende, Italy
Luigi Madeo: Department of Chemistry and Chemical Technologies, University of Calabria, 87036 Rende, Italy
Bagdat Teltayev: Kazakhstan Highway Research Institute, Almaty 050061, Kazakhstan
Maria Laura Luprano: Regional Agency for the Environmental Protection—ARPA Lazio, 00187 Rome, Italy
Michela Alfè: National Research Council, Institute of Sciences and Technologies for Sustainable Energy and Mobility (CNR–STEMS), 80125 Napoli, Italy
Valentina Gargiulo: National Research Council, Institute of Sciences and Technologies for Sustainable Energy and Mobility (CNR–STEMS), 80125 Napoli, Italy
Giovanna Ruoppolo: National Research Council, Institute of Sciences and Technologies for Sustainable Energy and Mobility (CNR–STEMS), 80125 Napoli, Italy
Cesare Oliviero Rossi: Department of Chemistry and Chemical Technologies, University of Calabria, 87036 Rende, Italy

Sustainability, 2022, vol. 14, issue 10, 1-17

Abstract: Urban waste management is a hard task: more than 30% of the world’s total production of Municipal Solid Wastes (MSW) is not adequately handled, with landfilling remaining as a common practice. Another source of wastes is the road pavement industry: with a service life of about 10–15 years, asphalts become stiff, susceptible to cracks, and therefore no longer adapted for road paving, so they become wastes. To simultaneously solve these problems, a circular economy-based approach is proposed by the ReScA project, suggesting the use of pyrolysis to treat MSW (or its fractions as Refuse Derived Fuels, RDFs), whose residues (oil and char) can be used as added-value ingredients for the asphalt cycle. Char can be used to prepare better performing and durable asphalts, and oil can be used to regenerate exhaust asphalts, avoiding their landfilling. The proposed approach provides a different and more useful pathway in the end-of-waste (EoW) cycle of urban wastes. This proof of concept is suggested by the following two observations: (i) char is made up by carbonaceous particles highly compatible with the organic nature of bitumens, so its addition can reinforce the overall bitumen structure, increasing its mechanical properties and slowing down the molecular kinetics of its aging process; (ii) oil is rich in hydrocarbons, so it can enrich the poor fraction of the maltene phase in exhaust asphalts. These hypotheses have been proved by testing the residues derived from the pyrolysis of RDFs for the improvement of mechanical characteristics of a representative bitumen sample and its regeneration after aging. The proposed approach is suggested by the physico-chemical study of the materials involved, and aims to show how the chemical knowledge of complex systems, like bituminous materials, can help in solving environmental issues. We hope that this approach will be considered as a model method for the future.

Keywords: char; pyrolysis; circular economy; waste disposal; anti-aging; bitumen; rejuvenator; bio-oil; end-of-waste (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/10/5790/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/10/5790/ (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:14:y:2022:i:10:p:5790-:d:812752

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 ().