Recovering the properties of aged bitumen using bio-rejuvenators derived from municipal wastes

Hu, Yongping; Omairey, Eman; Hughes, David; Bailey, Helen; Watkins, Miles; Twitchen, John; Airey, Gordon D.; Sreeram, Anand

Abstract

Ageing of bitumen leads to significant performance deterioration of asphalt pavements and leads to material properties that are not conducive to recycling. Aiming to maximise the reusability of bitumen, this study investigated the feasibility of rejuvenating aged bitumen using bio-based rejuvenators synthesised from municipal wastes. Two bio-rejuvenators were used in this study, namely Rej-A which was a crude polymer with bio-waste pyrolysis dense fractions and Rej-B which was a filtered pyrolysis wax further derived from Rej-A. The bio-rejuvenators, virgin, aged, and rejuvenated bitumen were characterised using a comprehensive testing programme of gas chromatography and mass spectrometry (GC-MS), Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), multiple stress creep and recovery (MSCR), linear amplitude sweep (LAS), and frequency sweep tests. It was observed that both bio-rejuvenators produced in this study can effectively recover the rheological properties of aged bitumen, improving its fatigue performance, e.g. the fatigue lives (at 15 % strain level) of Rej-A and Rej-B rejuvenated bitumen were 5.4 times and 3.0 times of that for aged bitumen when the dosage was 14 %. The rejuvenated bitumen was more sensitive to strain while less sensitive to temperature compared with virgin bitumen. Overall, Rej-A outperformed Rej-B in recovering the properties of aged bitumen. However, Rej-A was thermally unstable, undergoing 15.6 % mass loss when heated to 160 °C.

Citation

Hu, Y., Omairey, E., Hughes, D., Bailey, H., Watkins, M., Twitchen, J., Airey, G. D., & Sreeram, A. (2024). Recovering the properties of aged bitumen using bio-rejuvenators derived from municipal wastes. Construction and Building Materials, 438, Article 137268. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2024.137268

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Jun 26, 2024
• Online Publication Date: Jun 28, 2024
• Publication Date: Aug 9, 2024
• Deposit Date: Jul 2, 2024
• Publicly Available Date: Jul 5, 2024
• Journal: Construction and Building Materials
• Print ISSN: 0950-0618
• Electronic ISSN: 1879-0526
• Publisher: Elsevier
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 438
• Article Number: 137268
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2024.137268
• Keywords: Bitumen; Rejuvenation; Rheology; Black space; Bio-binder; Thermal stability
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/36866820
• Publisher URL: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0950061824024103?via%3Dihub