Processing Cost Comparison Reveals Real-Time Advantage
Asphalt millings, or pieces of asphalt paving that have been removed to be reused as recycled asphalt pavement (RAP), are a component of many paving projects around the world. In fact, asphalt is one of the most widely recycled materials on the planet, and the most recycled product in the United States.
Before the RAP can go into a new paving process, the millings must be processed/sized through crushing. Once processed/crushed, RAP can be stored and/or transported to its final destination, where it will be used again, in hot mix production.
RAP in combination with liquid asphalt cement (AC) and virgin aggregates are used to produce hot mix asphalt for paving. But there’s a cost to pre-processing the RAP into millings that’s possible to avoid or minimize with the right equipment.
The Problem with Processed Asphalt Millings
RAP reduces the amount of virgin asphalt and aggregates needed to produce hot mix asphalt. Processing/Crushing asphalt millings is necessary to balance the AC content and aid in proper heat transfer, etc. So what’s the potential problem with processed asphalt millings? It’s on the surface. Grinding the reclaimed pavement into millings in advance creates more surface area, which then takes on moisture as it’s stored. Added moisture content results in higher energy consumption to dry the product in the hot mix production process.
Grinding Asphalt Millings in Real-Time for Cost Savings
If you can reduce the process to one real-time step of crushing/processing asphalt millings to go directly into the hot mix instead of storage, you can dramatically reduce the costs associated with the drying process. You will also be able to greatly reduce the costs of processing asphalt millings as you will not have the expense of crushing, storing, or handling the product.
One way to accomplish that is with our innovative Honey Badger RAP Crusher. By crushing the RAP in real-time, the Honey Badger can reduce the cost of asphalt millings from four-to-six dollars per ton to as low as fifty cents per ton, simply by eliminating the additional handling of the product that is required when it is processed ahead of time. In addition, the lower moisture content of the product also makes “cents” in the drying process.
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