Title
Grip on Bitumen: Mapping the Changes in Bitumen Market and it's impact on performance
Author
Nahar, S.N.
Teugels, W.
van der Wall, A.
Poeran, N.
van Vilsteren, I.
Publication year
2020
Abstract
Major road networks in the Netherlands are made of asphalt concrete. These roads enable our economic and social activities by facilitating the movement of goods and people. Development and maintenance of the road network, by keeping it operational is crucial to the growth and competitiveness of the economy. In order to maintain high quality of these roads, while striving towards a more sustainable, circular society requires a thorough understanding of both the performance of asphalt concrete and its constituents. Bitumen is known to be the most important component that influences the performance and durability of asphalt. Composition of bitumen can vary depending on nature and source of the crude oil and its refining process. In recent years, bitumen market has changed significantly in terms of its quality and consistency. One aspect of this change is the unavailability of certain crude oil sources, which introduces a change in choice of crude oil source and often mixture of crude oils from multiple sources. Another aspect is that the refineries are in transitions due to economic and regulatory reasons. As a result, there is an inconsistency in crude source and quality of bitumen in the market. This change can influence both short and longterm performance of bitumen and asphalt. To address timely topics and to promote asphalt related innovations, a collaboration platform between asphalt industry, road authority and knowledge institutes is introduced in 2018 in the Netherlands. The program is called Asphalt- Impulse. All stakeholders work together towards a common goal: “Doubling the lifetime of asphalt pavements, halving the scatter in lifetime, halving the CO2-footprint with the same or lower production cost”. One of the projects within AsphaltImpulse is called “Grip on Bitumen”. The project aims at a better insight and understanding the influence of refining methods, crude oil sources: in this way to make potential sources of change in bitumen market. It also aims to define additional performance indicator for bitumen that can better predict the functional properties of bitumen and asphalt. This paper summarizes the knowledge document developed within ‘Grip on bitumen’ and presents the aspects of bitumen manufacturing process, driving factors of the current change in bitumen market and its possible impact on asphalt and other industrial application.
Subject
Architecture and Building
Buildings and Infrastructures
2015 Urbanisation
To reference this document use:
http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:064cd4c5-876f-4fec-ab32-8b7a91725ed7
TNO identifier
946758
Source
7th E&E Congress, Eurasphalt & Eurobitume, 16-18 June 2021., 1-12
Document type
conference paper