PUBLIC SECTOR SUSTAINABILITY
LAFARGE TARMAC AND CARBON TRUST LAUNCH LOW ENERGY ROAD BUILDING MATERIALS WITH POTENTIAL TO SAVE INDUSTRY £46M
T
he Carbon Trust and Lafarge Tarmac have announced the findings of a three year study to improve the carbon efficiency of the manufacture of road
materials, which has the potential to save the UK road industry £46.2m in energy costs over the next ten years.
The project has lifted market barriers for the use of lower temperature asphalt used in road construction, which reduces energy costs, as well as cutting carbon emissions by up to 39%. The conventional road material, commonly used across the UK, is made by bonding aggregates and bitumen into asphalt by heating them to temperatures of 180°C – 190°C. This project successfully trialled the use of a ‘Low Temperature Asphalt’ (LTA) material, which allows mixing and working at lower temperatures. It bonds road materials as effectively as the conventional method, but using much lower temperatures and less energy. The trial has enabled the project team to develop specifications for use, which will help accelerate the production and adoption of lower temperature asphalts. The project was led by Lafarge Tarmac and the Carbon Trust (within its Industrial Energy Efficiency Accelerator (IEEA) Programme). Funding came from Lafarge Tarmac and the Carbon Trust (via the Department of Energy & Climate Change (DECC) and support from the Department for Business Innovation and Skills. Al-Karim Govindji, Technology Acceleration Manager, the Carbon Trust, said: “Roads are the lifeblood of economic prosperity: they connect people to jobs and business to markets. There is tremendous potential for this project, given the scheduled improvements to our major roads and motorways. This programme is an example of how by establishing new models of working, we can unblock demand-supply stand- offs, to help the UK to deliver the
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Industrial asphalt efficiency specification could help Highway Authorities to cut energy cost and carbon footprint of road building over the next 10 years
infrastructure of the future, at a lower cost for taxpayers and the climate.” Martin Riley, Managing Director for
Lafarge Tarmac’s Asphalt and Aggregates business, added: “As a leader in sustainable construction solutions, we want to use our expertise to help bring these solutions to our clients and customers. This project with the Carbon Trust will help unlock barriers to bring lower temperature asphalt into wider use, cutting energy use, reducing CO2
emissions and enabling
us to deliver projects more quickly for clients. It will take time for these materials to become available, but as producers follow our lead and adopt this technology, there will be a growing movement to embrace LTAs as direct replacements for conventional hot asphalts.”
If the new specification is adopted and low temperature asphalt market achieves 21% of the total UK asphalt market over the next decade, it could save £46.2m and around 260,000 tonnes of CO2
during
the manufacturing of these materials over the next 10 years1
. This would create the
equivalent carbon savings of taking more than 345,000 cars off the road. The new specification is also of great importance to the Highway Authorities, especially those that have set targets for the reduction of carbon emissions. For example, the West Midlands Highway Alliance, which represents 14 of the region’s Local Authorities with a combined annual spend of over £400m, launched a concordat in September 2013 to reduce CO2
emissions in the production of road and footway materials by 20% by 2015. Keith Gordon, Assistant Director Efficiency & Delivery from the West
PUBLIC SECTOR SUSTAINABILITY • VOLUME 4 ISSUE 2
Midlands Highway Alliance (WMHA), said: “On the 30th September, the WMHA committed to reduce carbon emissions from the production of road and footway materials by 20% by 2015. Preparations are well underway to deliver this programme following a number of practical workshops attended by clients, contractors and suppliers. It is anticipated that over 300,000 tonnes of low temperature asphalt will be laid by 2015.” Dr Nizar Ghazireh, the project
director at Lafarge Tarmac, added: “This pioneering project and the development of the national specification for LTA will fundamentally change the asphalt industry in the UK, producing sustainable low carbon products. We are delighted to be working with the Carbon Trust on leading this exciting project together with our partners, and key senior members from the Highway Authorities in the UK and the Department for Transport. The developed specification will assist clients to procure these materials as standard products and that feedback from their use will inform the future development of the European Standards. “There are considerable carbon savings to be gained from using lower temperature asphalt, reduced traffic management time and less disruption to the road users which can all be translated into cost savings.”
Other project partners include Nynas
UK, Atkins, MIRO and TRL. Out of the project a new specification, open to all manufacturers, has been published by The Transport Research Laboratory (TRL) in October 2013, enabling LTA mixtures to be designed and specified. The outcome
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