Chemically mediated asphalt rejuvenation via epoxidized vegetable oil derivatives for sustainable pavements

Abstract

Here we report the chemical passivation of agglomerated asphaltenes in low-quality asphalts and reclaimed asphalt pavement via epoxidized vegetable oil derivatives. This facilitates the production of new pavements with 45 wt% recycled content and a 30% reduction in cost, energy, and emissions impact over current best practices. Recycled asphalt pavement and low-quality asphalt both represent materials streams with the potential to drastically reduce the energy and emissions footprint of our transportation infrastructure, provided that their poor performance properties can be ameliorated. We show that epoxidized methyl soyate and sub-epoxidized soybean oil act as chemical rejuvenators that reduce the asphaltene content in binder formulations enabling both low-quality asphalt and recycled asphalt pavement fractions far exceeding common usage. We demonstrate that compared to “fluxes”, or inert diluents, these bio-based additives show far superior solvency, rheological characteristics, and resistance to cracking as evidenced by both lab-based binder studies and a full-scale demonstration paving project.