The Evaluation of The use of Palm Shell Ash Waste to Polymer Modified Asphalt Mixture

Abstract

The palm oil industry’s development has a strategic role in Indonesia’s economy because Indonesia is the largest country and the largest exporter of palm oil globally. On the other hand, a new problem arises from increasing palm oil ash waste. This has encouraged the use of palm oil ash as filler mix asphalt. In this study, an evaluation of the asphalt mixture’s performance on the surface layer (AC-WC) will be carried out by utilizing palm ash waste as a filler using Starbit E-55 polymer asphalt. Testing the asphalt mixture’s performance using the Marshall method with asphalt content of 6% ± 0.5 and variations in the percentage of palm ash filler used, namely 3, 4, 5, and 6%. Samples are prepared and tested to obtain the stability and volumetric values of the mixture. Based on the results, it was found that the addition of palm ash waste as a filler could increase the stability performance at 3% filler content but there was a decrease in the filler content of 4, 5, and 6% in the test object without the addition of palm ash filler, the highest stability was obtained, namely 2358, 4 kg while the test object with the addition of 3% palm ash filler has a stability of 2503.03 kg at each asphalt content of 6.5%. The flow parameter in the test object continues to decrease along with the increase in the addition of oil palm ash filler, this is in line with the increase in the Marshall Quotient parameter which causes the mixture to become stiffness, this indicates that the mixture can withstand deformation due to traffic loads and shows that this oil palm ash potentially suitable for use as a filler in asphalt mixtures.