Recycling Capacity Key to Czech Highway Project
Ammann plant providing ability to produce asphalt mix with higher amount of RAP
The production of asphalt mixes for the construction market is changing quickly. Now, the trend is to use as much recycled material as possible, significantly reducing the environmental impact of asphalt production.
The Ammann ABP 240 HRT was recently purchased by Pražská Obalovna Herink s.r.o. (POH). POH is a subsidiary of two parent companies, Skanska a.s. and Eurovia CS a.s. About 90% of POH’s mix is delivered to its parent companies, with the remaining 10% used by smaller, individual customers. “We acquired the HRT plant with the expectation that it’s more environmentally friendly, has greater reliability and is a more energy-efficient operation,” Kadlec said. “Another deciding factor was the ability of the plant to produce asphalt mix with higher amounts of RAP as well as mastic asphalt.”
The Ammann ABP 240 HRT was delivered at the start of 2020. Installation was delayed by the coronavirus, and the first mix was produced a few months later. The new HRT technology is a significant upgrade from the previous plant, which was more than 20 years old. The plant utilities the as1 Control System, which has proven efficient and productive and makes RAP utilization easy.
The Ammann ABP HRT is such a good asphalt plant because it´s features an RAH100 drum, which provide with indirect heating of RAP. “The recycled material does not come in direct contact with the flame. The binder is not degraded and there are not high emissions. Thanks to this unique technology of counterflow drum is possible to produce asphalt mixture consisting of 100% recycled asphalt (RAP)”.
“Currently, Czech standards allow adding a maximum of 60% RAP into the mixtures for base layers, 40% RAP for binder layers and 25% for surface layers,” said Roman Kadlec, plant director for POH. “We assume further development of these regulations, which will allow us to add even higher amounts of RAP into the asphalt mixtures.” The company has experimented with mixes containing much higher RAP percentages. “We tried a mixture with 80% recycled material,” said Kadlec. “It was used for a private project, and we will monitor and further evaluate it.”
Current production is mainly focused on the modernization of the D1 highway near Prague. That specific section calls for the improvement of about 14 km of road. The modernization of D1 highway is the highest priority for Czech government because the highway is the main thoroughfare connecting the two largest cities in the Czech Republic, Prague and Brno. In 2020, POH delivered about 100 000 tons of mix for the D1 project, with another 50 000 tons planned for 2021. “The biggest challenge of this project is to finish work on time, without any delays,” Kadlec said. “Production capacity of 240 tons per hour helps us to meet this challenge.” Thanks to production capacity, quality and high levels of recycling there is a great deal of demand for the mix the plant is producing.
“We anticipate deliveries of asphalt mixtures not just for the modernization of highways, but also for other projects in the capital city of Prague and the central Bohemian region,” Kadlec said.
In the future, POH plans to produce wider scope of asphalt mixtures containing higher amount of RAP. “We are also able linked the plant directly to an external tank, which open up other production possibilities of asphalt mixtures with special kinds of asphalt binder,” Kadlec said.
The plant recently produced a mix with 90% recyclables, which led to an award for innovation in the Czech Energy and Environmental competition, announced annually by TOP EXPO. A panel of experts evaluated the entrants and chose POH because of its advanced recycling efforts. The company, in turn, specifically credited the RAH100 drum on its Ammann ABP 240 HRT as key to its recycling success. The award means that mix makers and experts are impressed with Ammann’s recycling technology.
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