The future of asphalt

To attend the guidelines of sustainable construction, the new global trends in asphalt mix production are turned to reduce emissions and fuel consumption

With a road network of 1.7 million km, Brazilian infrastructure is marked by a significant deficit of paved roads. According to a survey carried out by The Sistema Nacional de Viação (SNV – National Road System), this deficit reaches unbelievable 80 percent of the total. More than that, in the 12.1 percent of existing paved roads—quite low (the remaining percent is still just planned)—the quality of asphalt is very weak in technical and environmental terms.

In fact, Brazilian industry of paving is technologically lagged if compared to main countries of the world, as is pointed out by several experts of the area. “For example, heat transmission is low-efficient in the processes. And—incredibly—ignition is still carried out by torches”, provokes Gilvan Medeiros, CEO of Ammann Latin America, subsidiary of the Swiss group that is a global reference in the subject.

In this sense, the diagnosis is laconic. Remaining in the Stone Age, Brazilian network is characterized by a reduced useful life and by pathologies and irregularities in the pavement. This causes losses that undermine the competitiveness of the country. According to Medeiros, there is only one way to overcome such situation: investments in high technology. “The owner of the truth is the user, since he pays the bill and perpetuates the situation”, says the executive, emphasizing that the prevalence of a “short-term thinking” and “selection of the cheaper solution” prevents a more significant advancement of the industry in the country.

EVOLUTION

To confirm that, it is enough to check the international experience. In countries such as Italy, Switzerland and Australia, the efforts carried out together by authorities, contractors and equipment manufacturers resulted in the solution of structural problems that were affecting even the GDP of these countries. It is important to point out, however, that the change of paradigms to get a cleaner, profitable and quality industry was not so easy to be obtained and did not occur overnight.

In Australia, for example, the project started more than one decade ago, when a scenario of technologic obsolescence, high emissions and low productivity was observed. In 2011, after long discussions, the government—supported by the Australian Asphalt Pavement Association (AAPA)—started to promote asphalt recycling, encouraging the use of advanced sustainable technologies through standards and technical events. “This process lead to performance-based principles and to the progressive elimination of unsafe or non-sustainable processes”, explains Peter Maurer, world commercial manager of Amman asphalt plants, located in the world group headquarters in Langenthal, Switzerland. “What is removed from the streets is placed again. Therefore, the green asphalt became preference in most auctions.”

In 2013, the first HRT (High Recycling Technology) plant was installed in Melbourne and in the last year, the updating process was finally completed with the start of using low-temperature recycling technology. “The use of plants equipped with optimization tools resulted in a reduction of 30 percent in power consumption, if compared to the current standards of the industry”, says the expert.