PROMOTION OF THE CIRCULAR ECONOMY BY THE RECYCLING AND VALORISATION OF WASTE FIBERS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF MORE SUSTAINABLE AND DURABLE BITUMINOUS MIXTURES

Project PID2019-110797RB-I00 funded by MICIU/ AEI /10.13039/501100011033

INTRODUCTION

The GENERAL OBJECTIVE of the ASFIVAL project is to collaborate in the reduction of the roads economic and environmental impact through the optimized design of new bituminous mixtures incorporating waste fibers to improve their mechanical performance. The use of recycled and valorized fibers coming from different industrial processes contributes to reduce the needs for raw materials of an infrastructure that is normally characterized by a high consumption of resources. An asphalt concrete and a porous mixture will be designed with conventional binders, modified with waste fibers, in order to reach a performance similar to that achieved with polymer-modified binders, thus resulting in lower environmental and economic impacts along the road life cycle.

SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES

  • Selection and characterization of the waste fibers that best suit each type of mixture.
  • Optimization of the design of the asphalt mixtures incorporating waste fibers, analyzing their mechanical performance in laboratory and assessing their durability by numerical simulation.
  • Ensuring the appropriate recyclability of the new bituminous mixtures.
  • Economic and environmental validation of the new asphalt mixtures.
  • Internationalization and dissemination of the project results and knowledge transfer.

The OPPORTUNITY of the project is clearly improve Sustainable, Smart, Connected and Integrated Transport. Thus, in the ASFIVAL project previously valorized waste fibers will be reused to develop new bituminous mixtures which, in line with the Challenge objectives, are characterized by lower raw materials usage, energy consumption and carbon emissions during their manufacturing and lay-down processes, as well as by a recyclability potential that optimizes the maintenance and rehabilitation operations of the road infrastructure.

The expected results IMPACT is clear and of great relevance for the industry, public administration, final user and society in general:

  • Reduction of the infrastructure maintenance and rehabilitation costs by means of the increase of the durability of the surface layer.
  • Reduction of the manufacturing costs of the asphalt mixtures by way of using conventional binders instead of modified binders as well as the use of waste materials.
  • Reduction of the energy and resources consumption and of the greenhouse gas emissions by the extension of the mixtures lifespan, the use of waste and industrial by-products and the capacity of the mixtures to be fully recycled.
  • Promotion of the Circular Economy by the optimised use of wastes coming from industrial processes.

The main BREAKTHROUGS of this project on the state-of-the-art will consist of: substitution of commercial fibers by fibers coming from waste or industrial by-products; selection of the fibers as depending on the type of mixture; the use of a conventional bitumen for the design of an asphalt concrete and a porous mixture that are optimised according to the characteristics of the waste fibers; the analysis by numerical simulation of the influence of the selected fibers; the assessment of the recyclability of the experimental mixtures; and the quantification of the economic