Smell of Green May Soon Replace Asphalt's Acrid Odor
Engineers at a Chattanooga, Tenn.-based manufacturer have made asphalt and its foul fumes go together like oil and water. Their method? Injecting water into hot liquid asphalt produces a foaming binder that cuts down on natural resources and keeps drivers from rushing to roll up their windows.
European additives that produce "warm-mix" asphalt were the inspiration for the water-injection method developed by Astec Industries Inc. Its executives wanted to find a way to make asphalt easy to lay at lower temperatures without introducing expensive chemicals, which can increase mix costs by several dollars per ton.