Post oil pavement – POP

POP's objective is to formulate an alternative binder to petroleum bitumen traditionally used in the construction of flexible pavements. The goal is to anticipate the unavoidable scarcity of bitumen coming from fossil resources, which has already led to increasingly frequent supply disruptions. We want to develop an alternative material for a total and also partial substitution of petroleum bitumen. In order to contribute to the reduction of the environmental impact of pavement construction, the alternative binder developed in POP will be evaluated in synergy with old pavement recycling techniques and in connection with less energy-consuming techniques using the binder in emulsion form. The impacts of the project will be of two types: first, we expect that this solution will enable the storage of large quantities of renewable carbon for many years in the biobinder, then, we expect to answer to societal demand for mobility in an oil-free world.
To formulate this biobinder, the main idea is to use lipidic by-products (edible oil extraction residues, lipidic agri-food waste, used edible oil, etc.). The resources used in POP have not yet been used in road construction for a total substitution of bitumen. It will therefore be the first worldwide research experiment on this subject. The partners of POP in a preliminary study have demonstrated that it was possible to formulate a biobinder based on the functionalization of fatty acids and on the production of a lipidic gel by adding a biobased consistency agent. This innovative strategy must be rationalized in order to be able to modulate and optimize the target rheological states required. Thus, the upgrading of the lignocellulosic biomass is considered to complete the strategy already initiated that will lead to new biobased formulations which will benefit from an abundant and low cost biomass. From a scientific point of view, we will study the chemical modification (chemical and / or physical association of molecular clusters) of lipidic and lignocellulosic biomasses to create new molecular entities to reach the target rheological states (thermosusceptible viscoelastic liquid). A scale-up is planned using a pre-industrial reactor allowing to produce enough material to perform conventional formulation tests on road mixes. The alternative biobased binder should have the typical behavior of a thermosusceptible viscoelastic liquid with a strong ability to dissipate stresses under mechanical loading. Then, to obtain the final biomaterial, different solutions will be explored in connection with the environmental issues of road construction: either recycling by “hot” route where the bio-binder will be used at high temperature (typically 150 ° C) mixed with asphalt aggregates (from roads at the end of their life) and the “cold” route where the biobinder will be used (between 20 ° C and 60 ° C) in the form of an oil-in-water emulsion. Finally, the biomaterials produced during the project will be subject to a technical including aging and biodegradation resistance tests, but also environmental assessment via a life cycle analysis and ecotoxicity tests.