Technical and environmental performance assessment of VOCs inhibited asphalt binders and mixtures

Abstract

Asphalt materials will emit a large amount of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) under high temperature conditions, to address the environmental impact of asphalt pavement construction, this study selected different proportions of activated carbon (AC) and expanded graphite (EG) as composite inhibitors of asphalt VOCs, the road performance and environmental performance of asphalt mixtures are explored. Furthermore, the study proposed the VOCs resistance index (VRI) and VOCs environment-technique index (ETI) to evaluate the environmental and environmental-technical performance of asphalt mixture incorporating composite VOCs inhibitors. The results show that the VOCs inhibited asphalt mixtures with 5% AC-3% EG composite inhibitors has the best comprehensive environmental performance (80.15%), and its environmental technical performance (27.59%) is also the best, which is far higher than the other three VOCs inhibited asphalt mixtures. This study provides a reference and evaluation standard for the future development of efficient asphalt VOCs inhibitors.