First on the road, then in the road

THE INITIAL SITUATION:

Worldwide road traffic is increasing and so too the number of used tires that accumulate every year: a breathtaking 19.3 million tons! In light of this, recycling should be a matter of course. But most tires end their lives as a substitute fuel, for example in cement plants.

The second problem: as road traffic increases, the load on the road surface increases – and as a result, the cost of maintenance too.

THE IDEA:

Asphalt is a mixture of rock granules with bitumen as a binder. Asphalt, which has to last for a long time, has to be hard and resilient, but at the same time it has to remain permanently elastic in order to compensate for differences in temperature and load. The elasticity and thus the durability of road surfaces can be significantly improved by adding rubber. If this rubber were to be extracted from old tires, it would be a win-win situation.

EVONIK’S SOLUTION:

In order for rubber powder from ground tires to become homogeneous rubber that remains elastic for decades, the powder particles have to be cross-linked with each other via chemical bridges. VESTENAMER^®, a process additive from Evonik, builds these chemical bridges. 

Adding rubber powder and VESTENAMER^® to road surface bitumen means less cracking, fewer potholes, lower maintenance costs, and thus fewer traffic jams caused by maintenance work. Each ton of rubber powder that is recycled in this way saves around 2.7 tons of carbon dioxide compared to thermal recycling. Or expressed in meters: around 800 scrap tires are sensibly recycled along one kilometer of road.

OUR PARTNERS:

VESTENAMER^® has established itself as the industry standard for the rubber production. Our VESTENAMER^® team works with both rubber manufacturers and rubber recyclers around the globe.

YOUR CONTACT:

Would you like to dive even deeper into the subject? You can satisfy your thirst for knowledge on the websites of our department. Or get in touch with our team of experts: In Alexander Paasche, you will find an experienced contact person.