New Binders Using Natural Bitumen Selenizza

The purpose of this paper is to highlight the benefits of using natural bitumen as part of the emerging environmental sustainability innovations and trends in asphalt mixture design. Various recent studies have analyzed the characteristics of natural bitumens showing that they are totally compatible with bitumens from refineries and their influence may be compared to that of chemical additives. More particularly, the use of natural bitumen Selenizza, not only increases the binder consistency, viscosity, and stability, but it confers on the modified bitumen, increased resistance to aging, and leads to an improved low-temperature behavior compared to equivalent penetration grade straight run bitumen. The high modulus asphalt mixes obtained with binders modified with natural bitumen, allow successfully facing up the growing volume of the traffic while achieving efficient pavement structures with thinner and more durable layers. This paper specifically presents the main conclusions of recent research work focusing for the first time on the use of vegetable oils (rapeseed and sunflower) to soften natural bitumen Selenizza aiming to develop a new type of binder for asphalt mixes and introduces an experimental investigation of a new High Modulus Asphalt Concrete (HMAC), incorporating 100% reclaimed asphalt pavement (RAP) aggregates thanks to a rejuvenator composed of waste vegetable oil and natural bitumen Selenizza which reverses the aging rheological binder properties and restores the fresh bitumen values.