Development and Evaluation of a Manufacturing System of Asphalt Mixture Products using Wood Tar

Abstract

Production of asphalt mixture product discharges 40% of CO₂ emission in the whole road sector in Japan. In this study we developed a new system of asphalt mixture production that uses wood tar instead of fossil fuel. The obtained results are as follows. (1) A system that uses wood tar that comes from biomass gasifier power generation was developed. The wood tar in its high energy density is transported from the site of the power generation to the site of the asphalt mixture production at long distance. (2) A burner technology of asphalt mixture production that uses wood tar at 90% and heavy oil at 10% was developed. The burner system that consists of a binary fluid technique for wood tar and a mono fluid technique for heavy oil keeps stable burning. (3) The high quality of the asphalt mixture product using wood tar was verified. The new system of the asphalt mixture production using wood tar follows the environmental regulations about emission gases. (4) In the case of wood tar at 90% and heavy oil at 10%, the CO₂ intensity from fuel consumption of recycled asphalt mixture production is by 80% less than that in a case at 100% heavy oil.