Life Cycle Assessment of Innovative Asphalt Mixtures Made with Crumb Rubber for Impact-Absorbing Pavements

Mayara Sarisariyama Siverio Lima (), Christina Makoundou, Cesare Sangiorgi and Florian Gschösser
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Mayara Sarisariyama Siverio Lima: Department of Structural Engineering and Material Sciences, University of Innsbruck, 6020 Innsbruck, Austria
Christina Makoundou: Department of Material and Surface Design, Research Institutes of Sweden (RISE), 114 28 Stockholm, Sweden
Cesare Sangiorgi: Department of Civil, Chemical, Environmental and Materials Engineering, University of Bologna, 40131 Bologna, Italy
Florian Gschösser: Department of Structural Engineering and Material Sciences, University of Innsbruck, 6020 Innsbruck, Austria

Sustainability, 2022, vol. 14, issue 22, 1-12

Abstract: This study applies the life cycle assessment methodology to evaluate the environmental impacts of shock-absorbing pavements fabricated with recycled materials (crumb rubber and a colored pigment called ferrotone), employing the “cradle-to-grave” approach, in which the impacts of all life cycle phases (from materials’ acquisition to the end-of-life of the pavement) are included. The analysis compares the impacts of standard and innovative asphalt materials, considering cold and hot production processes. In addition, three different lifespans are simulated for the pavement structures: the reference service life until the first intervention is considered to be 5 years, and the following scenarios consider that the alternative asphalt materials may last 20% less (4 years) or 20% longer (6 years) than the reference service life. The analysis uses non-renewable cumulative energy demand (nr-CED) and global warming potential (GWP) as main indicators to determine the environmental impacts over a 45-year analysis period. The results show that adopting the “dry process” (consisting of adding the rubber as a partial substitution for aggregates) increases the overall impacts due to the need for higher contents of binder. However, if the alternative pavement structures last 20% longer than the reference, they would generate lower impacts in terms of nr-CED and GWP.

Keywords: life cycle assessment; asphalt mixtures; urban pavements; crumb rubber; sustainability (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: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:14:y:2022:i:22:p:14798-:d:968068

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