A review of the evolution of technologies to use sulphur as a pavement construction material

ABSTRACT

Several materials (e.g. bio-binders and industrial waste products) have been developed and proposed as a sustainable extender or replacement for asphalt binder over the years. Sulphur is a promising and sustainable binder extender that can be scaled to meet the high volume demand of this industry. Several laboratory and field studies were undertaken during the 1970s to use sulphur as a binder replacement or extender. However, by 1980s, economic factors  eliminated the impetus to develop sulphur based binder technologies. However, current economic and environmental conditions combined with technological advances once again make it feasible to use sulphur as a binder extender, particularly in certain parts of the world. This paper presents a summary of the chemical characteristics of sulphur that make it possible to use it as an extender for asphalt binders, the evolution of different technologies in the 1970s and then again during the last decade to utilize sulphur as a pavement construction material. The paper also summarizes findings from a few research studies focused on the use of sulphur as an extender and concludes with some areas of research that are required to revive this technology and avail its benefits in pavement construction and maintenance.

KEYWORDS:

• Sulphur
• sulphur extended asphalt
• bitumen

Acknowledgements

Authors acknowledge the help provided by Sulfur Institute in providing access to several archived documents on the development of SEA. Authors also acknowledge the Saudi Aramco and the Saudi Aramco Chair in Asphalt Pavements at King Faisal University, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia for partially supporting this study.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Saudi Aramco Chair on Asphalt Pavements at King Faisal University and Saudi Aramco, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.