Sustainable Highways: New Technologies Will Help Us Build Healthier Societies in 7 Ways

August 25, 2021

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by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest) ... Change represents opportunity. Here are 7 Transformations of the Highway system worth tracking now.

1. New roadtop materials. Paving materials are heading in a sustainable direction. Bitumen (asphalt) can now be made using biobased technology and biomass resources — typically, pyrolysis is used. That’s a same-as material, so the road performance will not change, but the lifecycle emissions will go way down by switching away from petroleum. Most schemes are testing blends of bio-based bitumen for now, as we reported here. Partly for cost reasons, partly because of availability of alternatives, partly from a go-slow, get-it-right perspective from highway authorities.

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3. New roadbed materials. Not only is there material on the top, there’s the material on the bottom, the roadbed. Think crushed limestone, which is a terrific carbon sequestration material, as we observed here. Take calcium oxide, add CO2, you’ve got limestone. As Madison.com observed here: “Limestone is abundant in Wisconsin, and it’s the material of choice for the surface of gravel roads, and the base for roads paved with asphalt or concrete.”

And wrquarries adds: Limestone aggregates and screenings are vital for the production of concrete bridge piers and spans (above), road base materials, asphalt pavement, concrete blocks, and tilt-wall construction.

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5. Pipelines. Over time, more and more data, electrons and liquids are going to be transported down highway right-of-ways. Think internet backbone, power transmission, carbon dioxide, and liquid organic broths (made from fermentation) that ultimately will be distilled into the resins, binders, additives, plastics that society needs. Possibly hydrogen carriers like DME or biogas (RNG), right down the center of the highway, possibly using all that space freed up by driverless cars and trucks.

6. Energy crops replacing roadside grass for cover, beauty and as a resource. Says here that highway transportation systems are investigating the planting of higher-value crops by roadsides to replace the grasses used for cover. Why not turn a cost center into a revenue center? READ MORE

Project turns state roadways into a renewable energy source (Biomass Magazine)