Recycled asphalt road

Photo of the asphalt road

fot. Brandon Frie / Unsplash

As part of the project carried out with LOTOS Asfalt, the Faculty of Civil Engineering is developing an asphalt binder technology that will allow the reuse of materials from road renovation.

Researchers from the Warsaw University of Technology are conducting research in which special additives for a new type of asphalt binder are to be selected. Owing to the binder, it will be possible to improve the parameters of the recycled binder and obtain the required quality of mineral-asphalt mixtures produced with an increased amount of materials retrieved from renovated asphalt surfaces.

- The major advantage of the new material is its quality and broad spectrum of activity. The road surface made with the use of a new binder and recycled material will not differ from the one that is made entirely of new materials – points out Jan Król, PhD, DSc. Associate Professor.

The authors of the project assume that as much as 30% of the material from demolition and renovation of roads can be reused for new road layers. The United States or Western Europe use recyclable material on a larger scale, nevertheless, the project of researchers from the Warsaw University of Technology and specialists from LOTOS is an important step towards the implementation of the European Green Deal. The use of the newly-developed asphalt will leave a much lower carbon footprint than pavements made from new building materials.

The completion of the research and development project "Bitumen for recycling" is scheduled for 2023.