Environmental Impact Assessment of Different Warm Mix Asphalts

Abstract

Within the last decade, much attention has been focused on determining viable techniques for producing sustainable asphalt mixtures and minimizing fuel use and greenhouse gas emissions. Thus, warm mix asphalt (WMA) has become a topic of significant interest among road specialists as it offers a potential solution for reducing the environmental impact of the asphalt mixtures due to the decreased temperatures they require for mixing and compaction compared to hot mix asphalt (HMA). The present study is focused on the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), according to a “Cradle-to-Gate” approach, of hot mix asphalt and warm mix asphalt prepared with locally available materials and different warm mix additives such as organic additives, chemical additive, and synthetic zeolite. For the analysis of the environmental impact of the warm mix asphalts was used a dedicated software for modeling and evaluating the LCA. The WMA prepared with chemical additive or organic additive led to a decrease of the environmental impact, in the production phase, compared to HMA. The study reveals that the raw materials extraction has the greatest impact on the environment in all studied cases, followed by the actual production phase of the asphalt mixture. For WMA produced with additives there was a decrease in the global impact on the environment compared to HMA.