Saving Energy in the Transportation Sector: An Analysis of Modified Bitumen Application Based on Marshall Test

Abstract

Energy consumption and material production are two major factors associated with the road construction industry. Worldwide, millions of tons of hot mix asphalt production consume a huge amount of fuel as an energy source in terms of quantity and cost to achieve the standard temperature of up to 170 degrees C during the mixing process. Modification of bitumen can not only reduce its usage but also the consumption of energy (fuel) during the asphalt mix production process at low temperatures. This study provides a method to save energy by proposing the addition of bitumen modifier in the road construction sector. Furthermore, to make it compatible with the field conditions for road construction, stability analysis is executed on the prepared samples by partially replacing the bitumen with polyurethane foam (PUF) and plastic waste (PW) (at 10%, 20%, 30%, 40%, and 50%). Experimental results demonstrate a reasonable saving in the amount of energy (33%) and material (40% bitumen) used and showed that similar strength of developed asphalt mix can be achieved using PUF. An extensive calculation concludes that these savings could make a huge difference in construction economics of mega road infrastructure projects, especially during an energy crisis.