Most things in our world have an
industrial history. Behind the computer,
the T-shirt, the vacuum cleaner is an industrial infrastructure fired by energy
(fossil fuels mainly). Each component of
our car or refrigerator has an industrial history.
Mainly unseen and out of mind, this
global industrial infrastructure touches every aspect of our lives. It pervades our daily living from the
articles it produces, to its effect on the economy and employment, as well as
its effects on the environment.
Most of us don’t thnk about the road we
are on. It is just there unless it has
huge potholes or other problems. It
allows our mobility from home to work to shopping to play or even to the
hospital. It allows us to visit friends
and relatives near and across the country.
Huge trucks criss cross this country on this dark ribbon bringing goods
and food. It allows us to drive to the airport. It allows the planes to take off and
land.
ASPHALT IS EVERYWHERE AND WE DON’T REALLY SEE IT.
GOING DOWN THE
ROAD
In the USA alone, the asphalt roads could
circle the globe at the equator 100 times.
Asphalt
pavement is one of America’s building blocks. The United States has more than
2.7 million miles of paved roads and highways, and 94 percent of those are surfaced
with asphalt. Many of those are full-depth asphalt pavements; others are
asphalt overlays used to restore the performance of deteriorating concrete
pavements.
The
nation has around 3,500 asphalt plants, at least one in every congressional
district. Each year, these plants produce a total of about 400 million tons of
asphalt pavement material worth in excess of $30 billion. The industry supports
employment for more than 400,000 Americans in the asphalt production, aggregate
production, and road construction sectors. Asphalt pavement material is a
precisely engineered product composed of about 95 percent stone, sand, and
gravel by weight, and about 5 percent asphalt cement, a petroleum product.
Asphalt cement acts as the glue to hold the pavement together.
http://www.asphaltpavement.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=14&Itemid=33
20.46 million miles of asphalt road globally
What percentage of land area in
the world is covered with pavement?
There
are 33 billion meters of road on Earth, so guessing 6 meters for the average
road width gives 33*6 = ~200 billion square meters. There are 130,000 billion
square meters of land, so 200/130,000 = 0.15%. Roads will be the bulk of it, so
also counting airports, parking lots, etc, maybe 0.2%.
land-area-in-the-world-is-covered-with-pavement
Some History
Sheet Asphalt
Sheet asphalt placed on a concrete
base (foundation) became popular during the mid-1800s with the first such
pavement of this type being built in Paris in 1858. The first such pavement
placed in the U.S. was in Newark, New Jersey, in 1870. Baker [1903] describes
this pavement system as (1) a wearing course 40 to 50 mm thick composed of
asphalt cement and sand, (2) a binder course (about 40 mm thick) composed of
broken stone and asphalt cement, and finally, (3) a base layer of hydraulic
cement concrete or pavement rubble (old granite blocks, bricks, etc.).
Generally, the concrete layer was 100 mm thick for “light” traffic and 150 mm
thick for “heavy” traffic [Baker, 1903]. The final thickness was based on the
weight of the traffic, the strength of the concrete and the soil support.
Bitulithic Pavements
In 1901 and 1903, Frederick J. Warren
was issued patents for the early “hot mix” paving materials. A typical mix
contained about 6 percent “bituminous cement” and graded aggregate proportioned
for low air voids. Essentially, the maximum aggregate size was 75 mm ranging
down to dust. The concept was to produce a mix which could use a more “fluid”
binder than used for sheet asphalt. This material became known as “Bitulithic.”
More history at:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asphalt
The story of the road, from the
beginning down to A. D. 1931. Gregory, J. W
THE GOOD OLD
DAYS
"Oilfield
Dodge" Promotional Film 1920s Dodge Brothers Wild Ride
2.46 minutes
SOURCE OF
ASPHALT
Asphalt
concrete (commonly called asphalt,
blacktop, or pavement in North America, and tarmac or bitumen macadam in Great
Britain and Ireland) is a composite material commonly used to surface roads,
parking lots, and airports. It consists of mineral aggregate bound together
with asphalt, laid in layers, and compacted.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asphalt_concrete
How to make asphalt ?
How to make asphalt ?
5.01 minutes
Almost all of the asphalt used
today for paving comes from petroleum crude oil. Liquid asphalt
is the heaviest part of the crude—what's left after all the volatile,
light fractions are distilled off for products such as gasoline. In Europe and
Canada it is commonly called bitumen.
Naturally
occurring asphalt/bitumen is sometimes specified by the term "crude
bitumen". Its viscosity is similar to that of cold molasses
while the material obtained from the fractional distillation of crude oil
boiling at 525 °C (977 °F) is sometimes referred to as "refined
bitumen".
A dark-brown-to-black cement-like material
containing bitumens as the predominant constituent obtained by petroleum
processing used primarily for road construction. It includes crude asphalt as
well as the following finished products: cements, fluxes, the asphalt content of
emulsions (exclusive of water), and petroleum distillates blended with asphalt
to make cutback asphalts. Note: The conversion factor for asphalt is 5.5
barrels per short ton.
https://groomr.wikispaces.com/Alberta+Tar+Sands
wolves-thoughts-on-the-northern-gateway-pipeline/tar-sands/
Energy Consumption
https://www.energystar.gov/sites/default/files/tools/ENERGY_STAR_Guide_Petroleum_Refineries_20150330.pdf
The
petroleum refining industry is one of the largest energy consuming industries
in the United States. Energy use in refineries varies over time due to changes
in the type of crude processed, the product mix and complexity of refineries,
as well as the sulfur content of the final products. Furthermore, operational
factors such as capacity utilization, maintenance practices, and equipment age
affect energy use from year to year.
Energy
consumption in refineries peaked in 1998 and has slightly declined since then.
Based on data published by the Energy Information Administration, energy
consumption trends are estimated by purchased fuel since 1995. In 2011, the latest year for which data is
currently available, total final energy consumption is estimated at 3,138 TBtu.
Primary energy consumption is estimated at 3,512 TBtu. The difference between
primary and final energy consumption is relatively small due to the limited
proportion of electricity consumption within the refinery, and the relatively
large amount of self-produced electricity.
In a
typical refinery, key energy consuming processes include crude distillation,
hydrotreating, reforming, vacuum distillation, and catalytic cracking.
Hydrocracking and hydrogen production comprise a rising proportion of total
energy consumption in the refining industry.
Asphalt and Road Oil Energy Use
125,326 Thousand Barrels in
2015
This is 1.76% of the Total Crude
and Petroleum Products in 2015
.
This is 5,263,602 gallons of oil.
Figure 1: Subentry energy consumption statistics of the
asphalt pavement
INVESTIGATION AND
ANALYSIS ON THE TWO‐YEAR ENERGY
CONSUMPTION ON
ASPHALT PAVEMENT IN LU’AN CITY IN CHINA
PROCESSING CRUDE OIL
Distillation Columns
http://www.wermac.org/equipment/distillation_part2.html
The range of temperatures at which the crude oil boils denotes
each fraction. This fraction is also called a cut. The key temperatures at
which each product is separated is called a cut point. The lower temperature
indicating a cut is the initial boiling point, or IBP. This is where the cut or
fraction just begins to boil. The end point, or EP, is where that particular
fraction has become completely vaporized.
http://www.pavementinteractive.org/article/asphalt-production-and-oil-refining/
http://www.kmgind.com/inner_asphalt%20plant.htm
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asphalt_plant
Hot Mix Asphalt (HMA) Trivia
• How many tons of HMA are placed/yr? • 675-750 MillionTons
• How many miles of roads in USA?
• 4 Million Miles of Roads
• How many miles are paved? •
2.4 Million Miles
Hot Mix Asphalt Trivia
• How many of those are paved
w/Asphalt?
• 2.3 of the 2.4 Million Miles are paved w/HMA
• 2.3 of the 2.4 Million Miles are paved w/HMA
• How many tons HMA removed annually?
• 120 Millions tons
• How many tons HMA on roads today?
• About 18 Billion tons
Asphalt Plant Trivia
• How many Asphalt Plants are
in the United States?
• About 3900
• How many tons of HMA do
states, cities and counties have in inventory?
• About 18 Billion Tons on
the road alone
Reducing Energy Costs at HMA Facilities http://www.neaupg.uconn.edu/pdf/09%20-%20Brock%20NEUPG%20Talk%2010-12-06.pdf
By SPUI - Own work / Base
map is http://www.nationalatlas.gov/printable/images/pdf/reference/genref.pdf.
B-roll: Road Paving
& Asphalt
2.50 minutes
GREEN HOUSE GAS
EMISSIONS
According to the Kyoto
Protocol, there are six main greenhouse gases, namely carbon dioxide (CO2 ),
methane (CH4 ), nitrous oxide (N2 O), hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs),
perfluorocarbons (PHCs) and sulphur hexafluoride (SF6 ) [23 ]. Since HFCs, PFCs and
SF6 are not commonly present in the asphalt pavement construction process, this
study only focuses on three types of
GHG: CO2 , CH4 and N2 O.
www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/13/3/351/pdf
The total GHG emissions of
asphalt construction are shown in Figure 6 . It can be seen that 97.19% of the total GHG emissions are due
to the mixture mixing phase and raw materials production phase, wherein 54.01%
are from the mixture mixing phase, and 43.18% are from the raw materials
production phase. About 1.35% of the total GHG emissions are due to the raw
material and mixture transportation phase. Only 0.86% and 0.61% of the total
GHG emissions are due to laying phase and compacting phase.
6. Conclusions
Asphalt pavement construction has
significant environmental impacts. Its GHG emissions are evaluated and
calculated for a case study in China, including raw materials production,
mixing, transportation, laying, compacting and curing phase. The total CO2
emission of the 20 km long asphalt pavement construction project is
52,264,916.06 kg.
For the asphalt pavement construction,
the mixture mixing phase generates the largest amount of GHG emissions,
accounting for 54% of the total. The raw material production accounts for 43%
of total.
GHG emissions. For cement-stabilized
aggregate base/subbase, the largest portion of GHG is emitted in the raw
materials (cement and aggregates) production phase, accounting for about 98% of
total emissions, wherein the cement production emissions alone accounted for
92% of the total emissions of raw materials production phase.
For the asphalt mixture course
construction, the use of energy-saving and efficient equipment is recommended
to decrease the GHG emissions. For cement stabilized aggregate course, the improvement
of cement and aggregate production will help decrease the GHG emissions. If the
raw material production is excluded, the use of energy-saving and efficient
equipment for laying, mixing and transportation is recommended to decrease the
GHG emissions.
Recycling
Recycling importantly saves energy and
materials. It is also important to keep
in mind that energy and special machines are required for this savings. The whole system must be considered.
New
FHWA Survey Finds Asphalt Recycling Reaches 99 Percent;
Warm
Mix Usage Skyrockets
Asphalt
pavement is not only America’s most recycled and reused material, it now is
being recycled and reused at a rate over 99 percent. Use of environmentally
friendly warm-mix asphalt grew by more than 148 percent from 2009 to 2010, a
trend that is expected to continue. Recycling of asphalt pavements and asphalt
shingles in 2010 alone conserved 20.5 million barrels of asphalt binder.
Some highlights from the data:
• RAP: The
asphalt industry remains the country’s number one recycler. The amount of RAP
used in asphalt pavements was 56.0 million tons in 2009 and 62.1 million tons
in 2010.
Assuming 5 percent liquid asphalt in RAP,
this represents over 3 million tons (19 million barrels) of asphalt binder
conserved. About 96 percent of the contractors/ branches reported using RAP.
Less than 1 percent of RAP was sent to landfills.
• RAS: Use
of recycled asphalt shingles (both manufacturer’s waste and tear-offs)
increased from 702,000 tons to 1.10 million tons from 2009 to 2010, a 57
percent increase.
Assuming conservative asphalt content of 20
percent for shingles, this represents 234,000 tons (1.5 million barrels) of
asphalt binder conserved.
• WMA (warm-mix
asphalt) : Total tonnage of WMA is
estimated at 19.2 million tons in 2009 and 47.6 million tons in 2010. This was
a 148 percent increase. Plant foaming is used most often in producing WMA.
Additives accounted for about 17 percent of the total WMA production in 2009
and 8 percent in 2010.
RSL Asphalt
Recycling Animation Movie
RSL Asphalt Recycling
Animation Movie
2.50 minutes
What
Is The Average Lifespan Of Asphalt?
http://www.pavementinteractive.org/article/frost-action/
How long does asphalt pavement
last?
On average, asphalt remains
intact for 25 years; however, there are numerous factors that can affect its
lifespan, such as the climate, traffic and whether or not the owner performs
routine maintenance.
Can water damage pavement?
Over time, water seeps underneath
the asphalt and can cause it to slowly erode. If the road is situated in a cold
climate, the water will turn into ice and expand, and as a result, any cracks
or small holes in the pavement will become larger.
Do climates that are especially
hot and dry allow asphalt to last longer?
Exceptionally hot climates can
increase the level of oxidation within the asphalt. Over time, the pavement
will become brittle more swiftly than it would if the asphalt was located in a
temperate climate.
Does filling cracks actually
provide long-term benefits for asphalt?
Yes. Adding sealant to cracks as
soon as they appear will prevent the small cracks from growing.
How does sealing asphalt extend
its lifespan?
Sealing asphalt pavement can
prevent moisture from penetrating its surface. It can also substantially slow
the rate of oxidation of the underlying pavement.
Does pavement maintain its
strength for all 25 years of its lifespan?
Without routine maintenance, most
types of asphalt will provide approximately 90 percent of their original level
of structural integrity after 10 years. Once 20 years have passed, the asphalt
will only have 55 percent of its initial durability.
SO, IN 10 TO
25 YEARS WHEN CRUDE OIL
IS SCARCE AND
TAKES AS MUCH OR
MORE ENERGY
TO GET
THAN IT
GIVES -
THEN WHAT?
