Test of climate-friendly asphalt in Denmark

1 June 2018

The experiment is among the first of its kind and could be ground-breaking in its efforts to reduce the CO2-emissions from road traffic, writes the Danish Ministry of Transport, Building and Housing in a press release.

- There are huge perspectives in testing new ways of reducing the CO2-emissions coming from road traffic, as a relatively small change could have a big impact. There are gains both for the drivers every time they save a litre of fuel and for the environment due to the reduction of greenhouse gasses. If our expectations are met, the Danish citizens and companies will save an average of EUR 5.3 million in fuels for every EUR 134,000 invested in climate-friendly asphalt. There will be a big financial gain, so I am very interested in the results from the experiment – which, among others, will test the durability of the asphalt, said the Danish Minister of Transport, Building and Housing, Ole Birk Olesen.

Limiting the rolling resistance of cars
The experiment is focussed on limiting the rolling resistance of cars – a resistance which occur when the tires and road touch. If the project is successful in reducing this resistance, the cars will use much less fuel and the CO2-emissions will be reduced.

- In the past few years, we have put a lot of effort in developing a specially mixed asphalt that requires less energy in terms of fuel when driving than the regular asphalt, while still keeping its high durability. The asphalt have already been tested in controlled environments, but we are excited to increase our knowledge on the asphalt’s capabilities after the testing period on a distance with particularly heavy traffic like the Elsinore highway, said Christian Axelsen from the Danish Road Directorate.

A 50 km testing area
The asphalt will be tested over the next few years, where the Danish Road Directorate continuously will analyse and monitor the capability and drivability of the climate-friendly asphalt compared to the regular asphalt.

In the following months, the Danish Road Directorate will test the asphalt on other locations around the country. A total of 50 km highway will be tested with climate-friendly asphalt in 2018.

- If we can reduce the rolling resistance with up to 4 percent, this could be equivalent to a cost reduction of around 57 million litres of fuel by 2030, which will reduce CO2-emissions with up to 143,000 tonnes and reduce nitrogen dioxides with 76 tonnes – the so-called NOx’, said Christian Axelsen.

Source: Danish Ministry of Transport, Building and Housing