When Physical Chemistry Meets Circular Economy to Solve Environmental Issues: How the ReScA Project Aims at Using Waste Pyrolysis Products to Improve and Rejuvenate Bitumens
Caputo P. Calandra P. Loise V. Pera A.L. Putz A.-M. Abe A.A. Madeo L. Teltayev B. Luprano M.L. Alfè M. Gargiulo V. Ruoppolo G. Rossi C.O.
May-2 2022MDPI
Sustainability (Switzerland)
2022#14Issue 10
Urban waste management is a hard task: more than 30% of the world’s total production of Municipal Solid Wastes (MSW) is not adequately handled, with landfilling remaining as a common practice. Another source of wastes is the road pavement industry: with a service life of about 10–15 years, asphalts become stiff, susceptible to cracks, and therefore no longer adapted for road paving, so they become wastes. To simultaneously solve these problems, a circular economy-based approach is proposed by the ReScA project, suggesting the use of pyrolysis to treat MSW (or its fractions as Refuse Derived Fuels, RDFs), whose residues (oil and char) can be used as added-value ingredients for the asphalt cycle. Char can be used to prepare better performing and durable asphalts, and oil can be used to regenerate exhaust asphalts, avoiding their landfilling. The proposed approach provides a different and more useful pathway in the end-of-waste (EoW) cycle of urban wastes. This proof of concept is suggested by the following two observations: (i) char is made up by carbonaceous particles highly compatible with the organic nature of bitumens, so its addition can reinforce the overall bitumen structure, increasing its mechanical properties and slowing down the molecular kinetics of its aging process; (ii) oil is rich in hydrocarbons, so it can enrich the poor fraction of the maltene phase in exhaust asphalts. These hypotheses have been proved by testing the residues derived from the pyrolysis of RDFs for the improvement of mechanical characteristics of a representative bitumen sample and its regeneration after aging. The proposed approach is suggested by the physico-chemical study of the materials involved, and aims to show how the chemical knowledge of complex systems, like bituminous materials, can help in solving environmental issues. We hope that this approach will be considered as a model method for the future.
anti-aging , bio-oil , bitumen , char , circular economy , end-of-waste , pyrolysis , rejuvenator , waste disposal
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Department of Chemistry and Chemical Technologies, University of Calabria, Rende, 87036, Italy
National Research Council, Institute of Nanostructured Materials (CNR-ISMN), Monterotondo, 00015, Italy
Calabra Maceri e Servizi S.p.A, Via M. Polo, Rende, 87036, Italy
“Coriolan Drăgulescu” Institute of Chemistry, Romanian Academy, 24 Mihai Viteazu Bvd, Timisoara, 300223, Romania
Kazakhstan Highway Research Institute, Almaty, 050061, Kazakhstan
Regional Agency for the Environmental Protection—ARPA Lazio, Rome, 00187, Italy
National Research Council, Institute of Sciences and Technologies for Sustainable Energy and Mobility (CNR–STEMS), Napoli, 80125, Italy
Department of Chemistry and Chemical Technologies
National Research Council
Calabra Maceri e Servizi S.p.A
“Coriolan Drăgulescu” Institute of Chemistry
Kazakhstan Highway Research Institute
Regional Agency for the Environmental Protection—ARPA Lazio
National Research Council
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