The manufacture of bituminous mixtures has traditionally required raising the temperature of its components, mainly to guarantee the workability of the mixture, thus ensuring the enveloping of the aggregates.
The process of heating the components of the mixture involves high energy consumption and GHG emissions. This procedure is therefore problematic from an environmental point of view because of the tonnes of CO2 and VOCs emitted by the large-scale manufacture of mixtures, economic, as high amounts of energy are consumed, and social, as high temperatures can cause health problems for paving workers, especially heat stress.
For all these reasons, the construction sector has been making an important effort in Research, Development and Innovation to manufacture more sustainable asphalt mixes at lower temperatures, thus achieving pavements with less environmental impact and greater safety for workers, but with similar characteristics to hot mixes, in order to guarantee the quality and safety of the infrastructure.
At CTCON, with our commitment to support the research of construction companies, we are working on the manufacture of cold mixes, in which the aggregates incorporated are at room temperature, seeking final results comparable to those of traditional mixes. In this way, it will be possible to produce environmentally, economically and socially sustainable pavements. Furthermore, replacing the natural aggregates used in these cold mixes with reclaimed asphalt from existing roads (RAP) increases the sustainability of the mix, as construction waste is being reused.
The mixes investigated at CTCON, cold and with high RAP rates as a substitute for natural aggregates, translate into low environmental, economic and social impacts that will be part of the roads of the future.
