Asphalt Pavement

Hot Mix Recycling of

Asphalt P avements
Pavements
It’s Long Overdue in India!

Prof. Prithvi Singh Kandhal, Associate Director Emeritus, National Center for Asphalt Technology
Auburn University, Alabama USA.

Introduction In-Place Recycling; and (5) Full made a six-laned highway. Due to
Depth Reclamation. Only hot construction of under passes and
Recycling of existing asphalt
recycling of asphalt pavements at a flyovers a total of about 30 km of
pavement materials to produce new
central plant will be discussed in the existing four lanes of bituminous
pavement materials results in
this article in the context of 4-laning pavement will get buried if not
considerable savings of material,
and 6-laning of India’s state reclaimed and recycled. The total
money, and energy. The specific
highways and national highways tonnage of bitumen, which will be
benefits of recycling can be
wherein road paving bitumen worth buried, is estimated to be about
summarized as follows: (a)
crores of rupees is being buried 7,000 tons which has a value of
substantial savings over the use of
rather than recycled. The cost of more than 22 crore rupees. The
new materials, (b) conservation of
bitumen is about the same as total tonnage of aggregate in the
natural resources, (c) performance
sugar that is: `30-35 per kg. Will bituminous pavement, which will
equal or even better than new
we bury sugar under our highways? also get buried, is estimated to be
materials, (d) pavement geometrics
The “burial” of bitumen which about 165,000 tons which has a
is maintained, and (e) saving of
is our country’s “dharohar” value of over 6 crore rupees. So we
considerable amount of energy
(property) is being done will have a gross savings of over
compared to conventional
indiscriminately on some of our 28 crore rupees. The estimated cost
construction techniques. The last
highways, which are being six-laned of cold milling and transport of RAP
benefit is very important due to the
from the existing four lanes. Existing to hot mix plant for recycling is
recent urgent need for reducing
four lanes of bituminous pavement about 8 crores. Therefore, a net
greenhouse gases that is, reducing
get buried while constructing vehicle savings of rupees 20 crores can
carbon footprint thereby earning
under passes, public under passes, be realized on this six-laning project
carbon credits for India.
and flyovers. In such cases, the if hot mix recycling is implemented
Over the years, recycling has
existing bituminous pavement by the National Highway Authority of
become one of the most attractive
usually consisting of dense India (NHAI). There are many
pavement rehabilitation alternatives
bituminous macadam (DBM) and projects of this nature which can
in developed countries.
bituminous concrete (BC) can be save us hundreds of crores. The
Unfortunately, asphalt pavement
milled off and the reclaimed asphalt one-time cost of modifying an
recycling is yet to take off in India
pavement (RAP) transported to hot existing asphalt batch plant to do
despite the current ambitious road
mix plant for recycling on service hot mix recycling in India is only 20
building programme underway.
roads and/or main line. Asphalt lakhs rupees.
The Asphalt Recycling and
pavement is 100% recyclable. Besides huge savings in cost
Reclaiming Association define five
Here is an example. An existing and earning carbon credits, we will
different types of recycling methods:
four-lane national highway with a also have to obtain less virgin
(1) Cold Planing; (2) Hot Recycling;
total length of 120 km is to be aggregate from our stone quarries
(3) Hot In Place Recycling; (4) Cold

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Asphalt Pavement
and also will have to import less
crude oil to produce the paving
bitumen. In some states such as
Punjab and Haryana where stone
quarries are prohibited, aggregate
is transported from the neighboring
states covering over 150 km that
makes the aggregate very
expensive.
Common Arguments
Against Recycling of
Asphalt Pavements
The following arguments are
commonly encountered as to why
NHAI should not mandate hot
recycling of asphalt pavements. The
writer’s response is given in
parenthesis.
1. It is a new technology that we
cannot implement as we do not
have the relevant experience. [Hot
recycling of asphalt pavements
has become a standard, proven
practice in many countries of the
world in the last 30 years. It is
not a US technology but global
and not a “rocket science.” We
can implement it right away on
major NH projects without any
experience or experimental field
trials just like NHAI has
commendably implemented the
use of robust stone matrix asphalt
(SMA) mix recently on national
highways without any problem.]
2. Recycled hot asphalt mix may be
inferior in performance to 100%
virgin asphalt mix. [Numerous
field studies in the developed
countries have shown time and
again that the performance of hot
recycled asphalt mix is equal to
or better than 100% virgin mix.
This is because the specification
requirements are generally the
same for both.]
3. We are already recycling the
milled RAP in the granular sub
base (GSB) and/or wet mix maca-
dam (WMM) on some national
highway projects. [Use of RAP in
GSB or WMM cannot be called
recycling; it is still a wasteful
130
burial. Moreover, inclusion of
discrete particles of RAP in GSB
is detrimental to its function as
drainage layer in the pavement.
Inclusion of discrete sub rounded
particles of RAP in WMM
interferes with the interlocking
characteristic of the WMM.
Besides, the cost of bitumen is
hardly realized from this burial.]
4. We do not have an Indian Roads
Congress (IRC) specification for
hot asphalt recycling. [As a
member of the IRC Flexible
Pavement Committee, last year
the writer had submitted two draft
specifications to IRC for adoption
to facilitate hot recycling. One
specification is for cold milling
and the other for hot mix recycling.
NHAI can use these two draft
standards immediately without
waiting for IRC’s final approval
because time is of essence.
These two draft standards can
be downloaded at the following
link:
h t t p : / / w w w. s c r i b d . c o m / d o c /
77469016/Open-Letter-to-the-
Chairman-of-the-NHAI-About-Hot-
Recycling-18-November-2011
5. NHAI engineers, contractors, and
consultants are not trained in hot
mix recycling. [The writer had
the privilege of developing
detailed, easy to understand,
guidelines for recycling asphalt
pavements; the project was
funded by the US Federal
Highway Administration (FHWA).
This manual was used by the
writer and his associate Dr. Rajib
Mallick to conduct field workshops
throughout the US to train highway
engineers of state and local
governments, contractors, and
consultants. Twelve workshops
were conducted in different parts
of the US to train engineers from
all 50 states. This comprehensive
manual addresses all issues
related to recycling such as
construction methods
equipment; materials & mix
design; and case histories and
QC/QA (quality control/quality
assurance). This manual can be
downloaded free at the following
internet link:
h t t p : / / w w w. s c r i b d . c o m / d o c /
47299513/Pavement-Recycling-
Guidelines-for-State-and-Local-
Governments-Federal-Highway-
Administration-Publication-No-
FHWA-SA-98-042-December-1997
However, training of NHAI
engineers, contractors, and
consultants in hot mix recycling is
still needed. The writer is currently
based in Jaipur and can assist in
conducting such training workshops.
Hot mix recycling cannot be
implemented in India until NHAI
mandates its use on all major
projects. Such a circular should be
issued as soon as possible before
the highway fraternity of India is
blamed for squandering our
country’s “dharohar” by burying it
under our national highways. By
Just issuing a circular to encourage
recycling is not good enough any
more. Recycling should also be
allowed in existing contracts with
immediate effect.
Hot Mix Asphalt
Recycling
Technology
Two processes which are essential
for carrying out recycling of existing
asphalt pavements are (a) cold
milling of existing road and (b) hot
mix recycling at asphalt plant. These
are discussed here:
Cold Milling
Cold milling is described as an
automatic method of removing
asphalt pavement to a desired
depth and restoration of the surface
to a desired grade and slope and
free of humps, ruts and other
distresses. This method can also
be used for the roughening or
texturing of a pavement to improve
& frictional resistance. Cold milling is
performed with a self-propelled
rotary drum cold milling machine
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Asphalt Pavement
Figure 1: Milling machine loading RAP on truck for transport to hot mix asphalt plant
with the reclaimed asphalt
pavement (RAP) transferred to
trucks for removal from the job site
(Figure 1). The rotary drum is fitted
with tungsten carbide teeth, which
can bite through hard rock particles.
The resulting pavement can be
used immediately by regular traffic
and overlaid at some future time or
left as a textured surface.
Cold milling has become a
common practice in developed
countries in the so-called “mill and
fill” method of resurfacing/
rehabilitating asphalt pavements.
For example, it is quite
common in the US to mill off
the top 40-mm asphalt
wearing course which is
exhibiting surface distress
such as raveling, cracking
and rutting, and then replace
(fill) it with a new recycled
asphalt wearing course. It is
done on interstate (national)
highways which are
otherwise structurally
adequate so that the paved
shoulders need not be
upgraded in elevation. It is
especially useful and
necessary for urban streets
where overlay after overlay
would decrease the height
of the roadside curb. This Figure 2: Schematic of hot mix asphalt recycling
latter use is the need of the
132
hour in India, where streets in
metropolitan areas have reduced
curb heights due to repeated
overlays. “Mill and fill” should be a
common practice in urban India.
Hot Mix Asphalt
Recycling at Asphalt
Plant
Hot recycling or hot mix recycling is
the process in which reclaimed
asphalt pavement (RAP) material is
combined with new materials
(asphalt binder and aggregate) to
in a
batch plant
produce hot mix asphalt (HMA)
mixtures. Both batch and drum type
hot mix plants are used to produce
recycled mix. The RAP material can
be obtained by milling or ripping
and crushing operation.
Batch Plant
Batch type hot mix plants are quite
common in India. Some
modifications are required in the
batch plant to recycle RAP since
attempts to introduce RAP directly
with the virgin aggregates result in
excessive smoke and material
build-up problems in the dryer, hot
elevator, screens and hot aggregate
bins. The most widely used method
for batch plant recycling is the
“Maplewood Method.” Figure 2
shows the schematic of this
method.
The cold pre-screened RAP
(95% should pass 50 mm sieve) is
stored in a steep-sided bin. RAP is
conveyed from this bin directly into
the weigh hopper of the batch
tower (or to another RAP bin
besides hot bins) through an
inclined conveyor having automatic
plant control. Superheated
aggregate is discharged first in the
weigh hopper followed by RAP at
ambient temperature. Since heat
rises, superheated aggregate heats
up the RAP. More heat
transfer takes place during
dry mixing and wet mixing in
the pugmill. Figure 3 shows
a batch plant with RAP bin
and RAP conveyor.
Generally, 30% RAP in
the recycled mix is
considered to be practical
limit for this type of recycling
technique.
Therefore, major
modifications to batch plant
consist of a separate bin for
RAP and an automated
conveyor system for taking
the RAP from the bin to
weigh hopper. If desired a
RAP bin can also be
provided near the hot bins
and RAP discharged from
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Asphalt Pavement
Figure 3: Typical batch plant with RAP bin and RAP conveyor
that bin to the weigh hopper with a
chute. These modifications can be
done easily to existing HMA batch
plants. As mentioned earlier, the
estimated one-time cost of such
modifications is about `20 lakhs in
India.
Drum Plant
The center entry method is the most
widely used method for hot mix
recycling in a drum mix plant. In
this method, RAP is introduced with
a special drum collar into the
downstream of the burner flame to
mix with superheated virgin (new)
aggregate. The hot virgin aggregate
Figure 4: Schematic of hot mix recycling in a drum plant by the
central entry method
134
heats up the RAP by conduction
before mixing with virgin bitumen.
Generally, 50% RAP material is
considered to be the practical limit
for this type of recycling technique.
A schematic of the center entry
method used in a conventional
drum plant is shown in Figure 4.
A double barrel drum mix plant
is ideally suited for hot mix asphalt
recycling. A schematic of the double
barrel drum is shown in Figure 5.
The shell of the drum is used as
the shaft of the coater. The virgin
aggregate is dried in the inner drum
and superheated to 315-340 C
Figure 5: Schematic of hot mix recycling in a double barrel
(when recycling about 50% RAP). It
then drops through the wall of the
drum and meets the RAP in the
annular space. Since the outer shell
does not rotate, easy access is
available to add virgin asphalt
binder and/or rejuvenating agents.
In this method, the RAP material is
not exposed to the hot gases.
Grade of Virgin
Bitumen Used in
Recycling
Since RAP typically contains hard,
aged asphalt binder (bitumen), the
grade of virgin asphalt binder to be
used in hot mix recycling depends
upon the amount of RAP in the
recycled mix. A study completed by
Kandhal and Foo indicated that the
evaluation of recycled mixture should
be based on a three-tier process.
Tier 1 included up to 20% RAP and
would not require any change in
the grade of standard bitumen. Tier
2 included from 21 to 30% RAP
and required that the new bitumen
grade should be softer by one
grade. Tier 3 included more than
30% RAP and required that the
bitumen be recovered from the RAP
and blended with the proposed
virgin soft bitumen to produce
blended bitumen with the desired
properties of standard bitumen.
Current guidelines for Superpave
mix design are similar to those
drum plant
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Asphalt Pavement
recommended by Kandhal and Foo.
Since viscosity grading was
adopted in India in 2006, the above
recommendations mean that VG-
30 can be used when the RAP is
20% or less. If RAP is 21 – 30%, a
softer viscosity grade, that is, VG-
20 should be used. Over 30% RAP,
blend of aged and virgin binder
should be analyzed. It is quite
possible VG-10 may have to be
used.
High RAP mixes are being
developed to further reduce the
carbon footprint as well as
economize construction. Such
mixes have been made possible
by separating RAP materials
according to size and/or new
designs of drum mix plants. Warm
mix asphalt (WMA) technologies
also offer potential for using high
RAP contents.
Summary
Hot mix recycling should be
implemented in India especially by
NHAI ASAP because besides
reducing carbon footprint, it has
significant economical advantages
by reusing very costly asphalt binder
(bitumen) and aggregates. If “mill
and fill” method is adopted in
metropolitan India, hot mix recycling
becomes necessary so that surplus
RAP is not discarded but recycled
back on the road.
Hot mix recycling is
economically lucrative when existing
bituminous pavements get buried
while constructing vehicle under
passes, public under passes, and
flyovers. This is happening on many
national highways in India when
six-laning of existing four-lane
highways is done. In such cases,
the existing bituminous pavement
usually consisting of Dense
Bituminous Macadam (DBM) and
Bituminous Concrete (BC), can be
milled off and RAP transported to
hot mix plant for recycling and reuse
on service roads and the main line.
Besides cost savings, the
advantages of hot mix asphalt
recycling include significant
136
structural improvement, equal or
better performance compared to
conventional HMA, and capability to
correct most surface defects,
deformation, and cracking.
References
♦ Kandhal, Prithvi S. and Rajib B. Mallick.
Pavement Recycling Guidelines for
State and Local Governments. Federal
Highway Administration Publication No.
FHWA-SA-98-042, December 1997.
♦ Kandhal, P.S. Open Letter to Chairman,
National Highway Authority of India
on Hot Mix Recycling, 18 November
2011. http://www.scribd.com/doc/
77469016/Open-Letter-to-the-
Chairman-of-the-NHAI-About-Hot-
Recycling-18-November-2011
♦ Newcomb, D.E., E.R. Brown, and J.A.
Epps. Designing HMA Mixtures with
High RAP Content – A Practical Guide.
National Asphalt Pavement
Association, Quality Improvement
Series 124, March 2007.
♦ Kandhal, P.S., S.S. Rao and B. Young.
Performance of Recycled Mixtures in
State of Georgia. Federal Highway
Administration Report No. FHWA-GA-
94-9209, 1994.
♦ Kandhal, P.S. Recycling of Asphalt
Pavements: An Overview. Proceedings
of the Association of Asphalt Paving
Technologists, Vol. 66, 1997.
♦ Roberts, F.L., P.S. Kandhal, E.R.
Brown, D. Lee and T.W. Kennedy.
Hot Mix Asphalt Materials, Mix Design
and Construction. HMA Textbook,
Second Edition, NAPA Education
Foundation, Lanham, MD 1996.
♦ Kandhal, P.S. and K.Y. Foo. Hot Mix
Recycling Design Using Superpave
Technology. ASTM, Special Technical
Publication 1322, 1997.
♦ McDaniel, R. and Anderson R.M.
Recommended Use of Reclaimed
Asphalt
♦ Pavement in the Superpave Mix
Design Method: Technicians Manual.
Transportation Research Board.
NCHRP Report 452, 2001.
♦ Kandhal, P.S. An Overview of the
Viscosity Grading System Adopted in
India for Paving Bitumen. Indian Roads
Congress, Indian Highways, April
2007.
♦ Mallick, R., P. S. Kandhal, and R.
Bradbury. Using Warm Mix Asphalt
Technology to Incorporate High
Percentage of Reclaimed Asphalt
Pavement (RAP) Material in Asphalt
Mixtures. Transportation Research
board, Transportation Research
Record 2051, 2008.
About The Author
Prof. Prithvi Singh Kandhal is
Associate Director Emeritus of the
National Center for Asphalt
Technology (NCAT) based at Auburn
University, Alabama, U.S.A. NCAT is
the largest asphalt (bitumen) road
technology center in the world. Prior
to joining NCAT in 1988, Kandhal
served as Chief Asphalt Engineer
of the Pennsylvania Department of
Transportation for 17 years. He is
the first person born outside North
America, who has held the following
three very prestigious positions in
the asphalt technology area:
♦ President, Association of Asphalt
Paving Technologists (with
members from all continents in
the world)
♦ Chairman, American Society for
Testing and Materials (ASTM)
International Committee on Road
Paving Standards (responsible for
over 200 highway standards used
worldwide)
♦ Chairman, Transportation
Research Board Committee on
Asphalt Roads, U.S. National
Academy of Sciences
Prof. Kandhal has published
over 120 technical papers and has
co-authored the first ever textbook
on asphalt road technology, which
is used by more than 25
universities in the U.S. He has
traveled to various countries in
South America, Europe, Middle East,
China, Vietnam, Japan, and
Australia to provide training and
consulting services in asphalt
(bitumen) technology.
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