Development of bitumen sensor for application at EIFFAGE’s Asphalt Mix Batching Plant

In the scope of CAPRI Project, an optical sensor will be developed at AIMEN’s laboratories to measure the bitumen content in Reclaimed Asphalt Pavement (RAP).

This sensor will be placed in the RAP line of EIFFAGE’s plant at Gerena (Sevilla, Spain), to measure in real-time the content of bitumen in RAP, an option not currently available commercially.

Reclaimed Asphalt Pavement (RAP) is the term given to the grinding of materials removed from the asphalt pavements, consisting of high-quality well-graded aggregates coated by asphalt binder. In some asphalt mixes, RAP is added to the mix with the aggregates and virgin bitumen to produce asphalt. The amount of virgin bitumen and aggregates added in such mix are calculated considering the content of bitumen in RAP, which is measured outside the production line, in an external laboratory, a lengthy and not very precise process. This overall process of recycling RAP in the asphalt production allows to greatly reduce the consumption of raw materials if the content of bitumen in RAP is accurately and timely measured, turning asphalt production into a more environmentally friendly process.

AIMEN will develop a sensor to measure the total bitumen content in RAP.

The sensor will be placed in the RAP line at EIFFAGE’s plant to provide automated measurements of bitumen content in Reclaimed Asphalt Pavement, providing the plant’s control software the bitumen content in real-time, which will allow for an optimized timely correction of the raw materials to be added to the asphalt mix. The use of this sensor will imply a great reduction on the consumption of such materials, as it will provide more confidence in the usage of recycled materials (RAP), allowing a huge increase on their employment in the asphalt mix, therefore making asphalt production more environmentally friendly.