A comparative review of hot and warm mix asphalt technologies from environmental and economic perspectives: Towards a sustainable asphalt pavement
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
11-1-2022
Abstract
The environmental concerns of global warming and energy consumption are among the most severe issues and challenges facing human beings worldwide. Due to the relatively higher predicted temperatures (150-180 degrees C), the latest research on pavement energy consumption and carbon dioxide (CO2) emission assessment mentioned contributing to higher environmental burdens such as air pollution and global warming. However, warm-mix asphalt (WMA) was introduced by pavement researchers and the road construction industry instead of hot-mix asphalt (HMA) to reduce these environmental problems. This study aims to provide a comparative overview of WMA and HMA from environmental and economic perspectives in order to highlight the challenges, motivations, and research gaps in using WMA technology compared to HMA. It was discovered that the lower production temperature of WMA could significantly reduce the emissions of gases and fumes and thus reduce global warming. The lower production temperature also provides a healthy work environment and reduces exposure to fumes. Replacing HMA with WMA can reduce production costs because of the 20-75% lower energy consumption in WMA production. It was also released that the reduction in energy consumption is dependent on the fuel type, energy source, material heat capacity, moisture content, and production temperature. Other benefits of using WMA are enhanced asphalt mixture workability and compaction because the additives in WMA reduce asphalt binder viscosity. It also allows for the incorporation of more waste materials, such as reclaimed asphalt pavement (RAP). However, future studies are recommended on the possibility of using renewable, environmentally friendly, and cost-effective materials such as biomaterials as an alternative to conventional WMA-additives for more sustainable and green asphalt pavements.
Keywords
hot-mix asphalt, warm-mix asphalt, life cycle assessment, gas emission, energy consumption, global warming, sustainable pavements
Divisions
sch_civ
Funders
University of Nizwa,Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia
Publication Title
International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health
Volume
19
Issue
22
Publisher
MDPI
Publisher Location
ST ALBAN-ANLAGE 66, CH-4052 BASEL, SWITZERLAND