Bitumen and Asphalt Cement for Road Construction

Bitumen Price

Bitumen and asphalt cement products have a wide range of prices based on the specification and quality of the product. Mos bitumen prices are indexed to the Crude Oil Price, typically Brent; still, several factors affect the overall price of bitumen products. Even if we’re talking about natural bitumen, not necessarily a product of crude oil refinery, it is still indexed to international oil prices. Amongst the factors that affect overall bitumen or asphalt cement prices, especially for export, are the prices of additives necessary for manufacturing the end bitumen product such as Styrene, Styrene-Butadiene-Styrene additives, transport, freight, international container costs, etc. 

What Is Bitumen?

Bitumen or asphalt cement is the product used to bind granular materials in the production of asphalt products for Road Construction, such as hot mixes, diluted bitumen (cutback bitumen), and asphalt emulsions, amongst others. 

 Asphalt

Asphalt production has constantly been growing for the last years as road construction projects continue to surge worldwide, being a constant challenge not only for the technical aspects of asphalt production but also for international logistics regarding bitumen and asphalt exports operations. 

Bitumen may be understood as the base product extracted from oil refinery, which later will be transformed into asphalt (According generally to AASHTO norm) for its final use in construction projects, but mainly in Road Construction projects. 

Composition

Generally, asphalt mixes are composed of three main components: bitumen, aggregate, and air voids. The composition of asphalt varies depending on its intended use. For example, asphalt with higher penetration values will be more suitable for paving roads than those with lower penetration values. In addition, the type of aggregate used can vary according to the application. For instance, crushed stone is generally used for concrete pavements while sand is commonly used for sand seals or slurry seals. 

Applications

There are many applications where asphalt is used. It is used in roofing, waterproofing, pavement, sealants, coatings, flooring, adhesives, and other industrial uses. Asphalt is one of the most common building materials and is used extensively around the world thanks to its flexible, adhesive, and waterproofing properties. 

Production

Asphalt production is a complex process in which residue from crude oil refinery is processed into usable products. This includes separating out the various fractions of petroleum, including naphtha, kerosene, gas oil, diesel, fuel oil, lubricant base oils, and asphalt. These fractions are then blended together to produce asphalt, based upon the characteristics of the final destillate (bitumen) obtained from crude oil refinery. 

The first step in producing asphalt is to refine the crude oil by removing impurities. This includes removing sulfur compounds, metals, parafine, and water. Afterwards, at least in Pro-Road Global factories, asphalt is analyzed and then modified according to the project or client specification. The asphalt cement may be modified according to performance grade (polymer modified asphalt cement), penetration grade, etc. 

The base product may also be transformed into diluted asphalts (CUtbacks / MCs) and asphalt bitumen emulsions for uses in priming, chip seals, bituminous surface treatments, slurry seals, etc. In other circumstances, natural bitumen (or tar sands) can also be used to manufacture final asphalt normalized products, such was the case in the Trinidad and Tobago Asphalt lake, where the primary sourced products are independent of international oil prices and therefore, bitumen price can become more competitive in international markets, and in the end equitaion, more stable Road Construction prices, but this is a rare case that no longer applies. 

Factors Affecting Bitumen Price

Bitumen prices and asphalt prices worldwide are mainly affected by supply and demand factors. The price of bitumen depends upon many factors like crude oil price, refinery capacity, transportation cost, etc.

– Crude Oil Prices

– Refinery Capacity

– Transportation Cost

– Demand

– Supply

In conclusion, it’s important to understand what affects the price of bitumen so that you can make informed decisions about when and where to buy it. Still, companies like Pro-Road Global, thanks to their storage and production capacity, may be able to maintain asphalt prices for up to thirty days, in comparison with other international asphalt suppliers that vary their prices weekly or even on a daily basis, so, in some cases, it is better to close spot negotiations in order to guarantee stability in the end road construction prices. 

Understanding Bitumen & Asphalt Cement

On the asphalt and bitumen end products, there is a wide range of products and specifications to find in the global market; in particular, Pro-Road Global group of companies manufactures certified products in 100% compliance with the international AASHTO norm and specification. Asphalt was first used as a building material around 3000 BC in Mesopotamia. It is made from bitumen, a naturally occurring hydrocarbon. Bitumen is not always found in nature, but when it does exist it is usually associated with petroleum deposits. Asphalt has many valuable qualities, such as durability, thermal resistance, insulation, and water repellency. These qualities make it ideal for road and roofing construction. Today asphalt cement is manufactured from the process of refining crude oil for the production of hydrocarbons, it is also possible to obtain it, in some parts of the world from an asphalt lake or to extract specific types of natural asphalt mixtures. Asphalt obtained through the refinery process tends to have more quality controls since the product comes from the hydrocarbon refinery. However, each refinery in the world has its processes and standards.

Such asphalt products are listed in the following section: 

Performance Grade (PG) Asphalt Cement / Bitumen

Performance Grade (PG) modified bitumen is asphalt cement graded by performance grade. These are conventional asphalt types of cement to which styrene-based elastomeric polymers are incorporated, thus having products of excellent quality, far superior to conventional asphalts. There are modified configurations such as Styrene-Butadiene-Styrene (SBS) which is the most common, Styrene-Butadiene (SB), Styrene-Ethylene Styrene Blocks (SEBS), Styrene-Sprene-Styrene (SIS), Radial and Linear SBS, Ethylene Vinyl Acetate (EVA), Ethylene Copolymer Resins (ECR), among others. The incorporation of the above configurations in the asphalt cement, after a complex mixture according to each project, increases the ionic surface activity, thus increasing the cohesion between aggregates and the asphalt itself, improves resistance to deformation, resistance to aging, water penetration, reduces the risk of fatigue and reduces thermal cracking due to high temperatures (or temperature fluctuations).

We produce PG asphalt products that meet the following specifications within the framework of ASTM D6373-21a, ASHTO M320-17, and AASHTO M332-17:

PG 52-10, PG 52-16, PG 52-22, PG 52-28, PG 52-34, PG 52-40, PG 52-46 asphalt.

PG Asphalt 58-16, PG 58-22, PG 58-28, PG 58-34, PG 58-40

PG Asphalt 64-10, PG 64-16, PG 64-22, PG 64-28, PG 64-34, PG 64-40

PG Asphalt 70-10, PG 70-16, PG 70-22, PG 70-28, PG 70-34, PG 70-40

PG Asphalt 76-10, PG 76-16, PG 76-22, PG 76-28, PG 76-34

PG Asphalt 82-10, PG 82-16, PG 82-22, PG 82-28, PG 82-34

Standardized Asphalt Cement by Penetration Grade

Standardized Asphalt Cement by penetration 60/70 is a product required for the manufacture of asphalt mixtures for road construction, denominated under its penetration grade (60-70). It is a conventional asphalt standardized for the manufacture of asphalt mixtures. It is a black-colored product with a semi-solid consistency that becomes liquid at temperatures above 100ºC. During the production process, the quality of the inputs and components with which the asphalt is manufactured is controlled to guarantee a homogeneous product with chemical stability.

Asphalt Cement Normalized by penetration 80/100 is a product required for the manufacture of asphalt mixtures for road construction, denominated under its penetration grade (80-100). It is a conventional asphalt standardized for the manufacture of asphalt mixtures. It is a black-colored product with a semi-solid consistency that becomes liquid at temperatures above 100ºC. During the production process, the quality of the inputs and components with which the asphalt is manufactured is controlled to guarantee a homogeneous product with chemical stability.

Standardized Asphalt Cement by penetration 40/50 is a product required for the manufacture of asphalt mixtures for road construction, denominated under its penetration grade (40-50). It is a conventional asphalt standardized for the manufacture of asphalt mixtures. It is a black-colored product with a semi-solid consistency that becomes liquid at temperatures above 100ºC. During the production process, the quality of the inputs and components with which the asphalt is manufactured is controlled to guarantee a homogeneous product with chemical stability.

Standardized Asphalt Cement AC-10, AC-20 and AC-30:

These asphalt cements are used for the production of asphalt mixtures in the wearing courses of road construction works. These products have a semi-solid consistency and are liquid at temperatures above 100ºC. This product is obtained from oil refining. Although for this type of asphalts classified by penetration (asphalt cement AC-10, AC-20 and AC-30), the technical standards (ASTM D 3381-13) only require a minimum range for the viscosity parameter, our technical department controls the quality of the products in such a way as to avoid plant variations of the optimum asphalt content, always complying with the general construction and material specifications of each country.

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