What is it about?
Eiffage Route company has developed an innovative road material called Biophalt®. It comprises a plant-based binder, made with wastes of paper production, and a high amount of reclaimed asphalt, coming from the recycling of old pavements. It is produced at a lower temperature compared with conventional asphalt mixes and is suitable with any type of traffic and roads, including highways. In this paper, both mechanical and environmental performances of Biophalt® are presented. Laboratory tests results show that its mechanical behavior is comparable with the one of a conventional asphalt mix, while its CO2 balance is far better, as confirmed by a Life Cycle Analysis (LCA).
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Why is it important?
The lowering of mixing temperature and the use of recycled materials contributes to reduce the environmental impact of Biophalt®. Furthermore, thanks to the vegetal origins or its binder, emissions of greenhouse gases that occur during the mixing, the transportation and the laying down of Biophalt® are compensated. Thus, it allows reaching the carbon neutrality for the whole steps of a jobsite.
Perspectives
It was a great pleasure to write this article about this innovation that offers the opportunity to significantly reduce the environmental impacts of road construction and to guarantee an excellent level of performances in the same time !
Julien Van Rompu
EIFFAGE
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Mechanical and Environmental Performances of Warm Mix Asphalt with Reclaimed Asphalt and Plant-Based Binder, Journal of Testing and Evaluation, December 2022, ASTM International,
DOI: 10.1520/jte20220319.
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