Performance of CPHMA Incorporating Vegetable Oil as Asbuton Solution

Abstract

The increasing demand for roads has an impact on the supply of raw materials, especially asphalt. Asphalt oil as conventional asphalt whose quantity is decreasing so that in the end it cannot meet the needs of road construction. Asphalt Buton (Asbuton) offers an opportunity as an alternative natural resource that will be able to supply asphalt needs. Asbuton is still not popularly used due to several shortcomings, including the need for material as an asbuton modifier. Asbuton needs for this material because asbuton has been exposed to the open air for hundreds of years so that the liquid fraction of maltene is reduced because bitumen is trapped in asbuton minerals. This study aimed to evaluate the addition of materials such as vegetable oil with 13 types with which has the potential to serve as a solvent to dissolve bitumen from asbuton in order to improve CPHMA performance. The evaluation conducted using the Liquid-Liquid Extraction (LLE) and the Marshall tests and the results of the LLE test showed the dissolution of bitumen by vegetable oil produced a high extraction efficiency (E) while Marshall test stability value had a stability value below the allowable standard for CPHMA and this means vegetable oil is not suitable as the solvent. It was, therefore, recommended that other treatments or materials are added to the vegetable oil to increase its ability to dissolve asbuton bitumen towards improving CPHMA performance.