Cigarette butts can improve asphalt

Using cigarette buttasts, asphalt strength can be increased – the Spanish -Italian team of scientists proves. 9 trillions of cigarette butt are thrown in the world annually.

Scientists from the University of Granada and the University of Bologna remind you of a serious ecological problem, created by cigarette butts. It is estimated that their number is growing and now they are created in the world a year – attention – nine billion.

These waste contaminates beaches, forests, waters and other elements of the environment, and the materials used in them are distributed for a very long time.

The Spanish-Italian group proposes an alternative to recycling of cigarette butts from all types of cigarettes, including electronic cigarettes, which contain more useful fibers.

From cigarette butts, researchers produced various types of granules. They rejected the tip of a cigarette butt consisting of organic ash, and used – constituting almost all its mass – the rest, consisting of cellulose fibers and plastic plastic. They crushed this material, mixed with wax acting as a binder, and then subjected the process of ironing, heating and cutting.

During asphalt production, when granules come into contact with hot bitumes, the wax melts and releases cellulose cigarettes and plastic fibers from cigarettes. These fibers act like reinforcement of asphalt structure, increasing its resistance to cracking, as well as as a binder, making the material more plastic and flexible.

In addition, the presence of waxes allows the modification of bitumen viscosity and lowering the mixing temperature of the mixture, which translates into a reduction in energy consumption and pollution emissions.

Tests have shown that the use of these granules would allow the production of asphalt with a high content of recycled materials, which at the same time offer better resistance to cracking under the influence of traffic and thermal shrinkage than traditional asphalt.

Marek Matacz (PAP)

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