RESEARCH ARTICLE

Journal of Oil Palm Research Vol. 35 (1) March 2023, p. 45-57

CHARACTERISATIONS OF BIO-ASPHALT INCORPORATING PALM BIO-OIL FROM WASTE EMPTY FRUIT BUNCHES

TRACY WONG LEH XIN1; MOK TAI HAN1; GUO TAI1; MOHD ROSLI MOHD HASAN1*; MOHD ASYRAF KASSIM2 and MOHAMAD AZRI SUKIRAN3

DOI: https://doi.org/10.21894/jopr.2022.0047
Received: 5 February 2022   Accepted: 20 June 2022   Published Online: 10 August 2022
ABSTRACT

Bio-asphalts feature economic, social, and environmental benefits and may thus be potentially substituted for petroleum-based asphalt in asphaltic concrete mixtures. This article presents the experimental investigation of adding palm bio-oil derived from empty fruit bunches (WBO) into the conventional asphalt binder at 5, 10 and 15 wt%. The physical properties of bio-asphalt were assessed via the penetration, softening point, rotational viscosity, ductility, and mass loss after the rolling thin-film oven (RTFO) tests. Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) tests were used to identify the chemical composition and functional groups of the bio-oil and bio-asphalt samples. The binder coatability was assessed by static water immersion and water boiling tests. The addition of bio-oil lowers the softening point and viscosity of the binder while increasing its penetration, ductility and mass loss after RTFO. The main absorption peaks for WBO bio-oil and WBO bio-asphalts were corresponding to C=H stretching of alkanes and aliphatic compounds, respectively. The bio-oil was mostly composed of aromatic and oxygenated compounds, as observed from GC-MS results, which justified the FTIR analysis for WBO bio-oil. The addition of WBO bio-oil improved the bonding characteristics of asphalt-aggregates, indicating that it has a significant potential for use in the production of bio-asphalt.

KEYWORDS:


1 School of Civil Engineering, Universiti Sains Malaysia
(Engineering Campus), 14300 Nibong Tebal, Penang, Malaysia.

2 School of Industrial Technology, Universiti Sains Malaysia,
11850 Minden, Penang, Malaysia.

3 Malaysia Palm Oil Board, 6 Persiaran Institusi,
Bandar Baru Bangi, 43000 Kajang, Selangor, Malaysia.

* Corresponding author e-mail: cerosli@usm.my