Asphalt

Natural bitumen from the Dead Sea

Refined asphalt
The University of Queensland pitch drop experiment,
demonstrating the viscosity of asphalt

Asphalt, also known as bitumen

(UK: /ˈbɪtjʊmɪn/, US: /bɪˈtjuːmən, baɪ-/),[1] is
a sticky, black, highly viscous liquid or
semi-solid form of petroleum. It may be
found in natural deposits or may be a
refined product, and is classed as a pitch.
Before the 20th century, the term
asphaltum was also used.[2] The word is
derived from the Ancient Greek ἄσφαλτος
ásphaltos. The Pitch Lake is the largest
natural deposit of asphalt in the world,
estimated to contain 10 million tons. It is
located in La Brea in southwest Trinidad,
within the Siparia Regional Corporation.[3]

The primary use (70%) of asphalt is in road

construction, where it is used as the glue
or binder mixed with aggregate particles to
create asphalt concrete. Its other main
uses are for bituminous waterproofing
products, including production of roofing
felt and for sealing flat roofs.[4]
In material sciences and engineering, the
terms "asphalt" and "bitumen" are often
used interchangeably to mean both natural
and manufactured forms of the substance,
although there is regional variation as to
which term is most common. Worldwide,
geologists tend to favor the term "bitumen"
for the naturally occurring material. For the
manufactured material, which is a refined
residue from the distillation process of
selected crude oils, "bitumen" is the
prevalent term in much of the world;
however, in American English, "asphalt" is
more commonly used. To help avoid
confusion, the phrase "liquid asphalt",
"asphalt binder", or "asphalt cement" is
used in the U.S. Colloquially, various forms
of asphalt are sometimes referred to as
"tar", as in the name of the La Brea Tar
Pits, although tar is a different material.[5]

Naturally occurring asphalt is sometimes

specified by the term "crude bitumen". Its
viscosity is similar to that of cold
molasses[6][7] while the material obtained
from the fractional distillation of crude oil
boiling at 525 °C (977 °F) is sometimes
referred to as "refined bitumen". The
Canadian province of Alberta has most of
the world's reserves of natural asphalt in
the Athabasca oil sands, which cover
142,000 square kilometres (55,000 sq mi),
an area larger than England.[8]

Asphalt properties change with

temperature, which means that there is a
specific range where viscosity permits
adequate compaction by providing
lubrication between particles during the
compaction process. Low temperature
prevents aggregate particles from moving,
and the required density is not possible to
achieve.[9]

Terminology

Etymology …
The word "asphalt" is derived from the late
Middle English, in turn from French
asphalte, based on Late Latin asphalton,
asphaltum, which is the latinisation of the
Greek ἄσφαλτος (ásphaltos, ásphalton), a
word meaning "asphalt/bitumen/pitch",[10]
which perhaps derives from ἀ-, "not,
without", i.e. the alpha privative, and
σφάλλειν (sphallein), "to cause to fall,
baffle, (in passive) err, (in passive) be
balked of".[11][12] The first use of asphalt by
the ancients was in the nature of a cement
for securing or joining together various
objects, and it thus seems likely that the
name itself was expressive of this
application. Specifically, Herodotus
mentioned that bitumen was brought to
Babylon to build its gigantic fortification
wall.[13] From the Greek, the word passed
into late Latin, and thence into French
(asphalte) and English ("asphaltum" and
"asphalt"). In French, the term asphalte is
used for naturally occurring asphalt-
soaked limestone deposits, and for
specialised manufactured products with
fewer voids or greater bitumen content
than the "asphaltic concrete" used to pave
roads.

The expression "bitumen" originated in the

Sanskrit words jatu, meaning "pitch", and
jatu-krit, meaning "pitch creating" or "pitch
producing" (referring to coniferous or
resinous trees).[2] The Latin equivalent is
claimed by some to be originally gwitu-
men (pertaining to pitch), and by others,
pixtumens (exuding or bubbling pitch),
which was subsequently shortened to
bitumen, thence passing via French into
English. From the same root is derived the
Anglo-Saxon word cwidu (mastix), the
German word Kitt (cement or mastic) and
the old Norse word kvada.[2]

Modern terminology …

In British English, "bitumen" is used

instead of "asphalt". The word "asphalt" is
instead used to refer to asphalt concrete, a
mixture of construction aggregate and
asphalt itself (also called "tarmac" in
common parlance). Bitumen mixed with
clay was usually called "asphaltum", but
the term is less commonly used today.[14]

In Australian English, the word "asphalt" is

used to describe a mix of construction
aggregate. "Bitumen" refers to the liquid
derived from the heavy-residues from
crude oil distillation.

In American English, "asphalt" is equivalent

to the British "bitumen". However, "asphalt"
is also commonly used as a shortened
form of "asphalt concrete" (therefore
equivalent to the British "asphalt" or
"tarmac").

In Canadian English, the word "bitumen" is

used to refer to the vast Canadian
deposits of extremely heavy crude oil,[15]
while "asphalt" is used for the oil refinery
product. Diluted bitumen (diluted with
naphtha to make it flow in pipelines) is
known as "dilbit" in the Canadian
petroleum industry, while bitumen
"upgraded" to synthetic crude oil is known
as "syncrude", and syncrude blended with
bitumen is called "synbit".[16]
"Bitumen" is still the preferred geological
term for naturally occurring deposits of the
solid or semi-solid form of petroleum.
"Bituminous rock" is a form of sandstone
impregnated with bitumen. The oil sands
of Alberta, Canada are a similar material.

Neither of the terms "asphalt" or "bitumen"

should be confused with tar or coal tars.
Tar is the thick liquid product of the dry
distillation and pyrolysis of organic
hydrocarbons primarily sourced from
vegetation masses, whether fossilized as
with coal, or freshly harvested. The
majority of bitumen, on the other hand,
was formed naturally when vast quantities
of organic animal materials were
deposited by water and buried hundreds of
metres deep at the diagenetic point, where
the disorganized fatty hydrocarbon
molecules joined together in long chains in
the absence of oxygen. Bitumen occurs as
a solid or highly viscous liquid. It may even
be mixed in with coal deposits. Bitumen,
and coal using the Bergius process, can be
refined into petrols such as gasoline, and
bitumen may be distilled into tar, not the
other way around.

Composition

Normal composition …
The components of asphalt include four
main classes of compounds:

Naphthene aromatics (naphthalene),

consisting of partially hydrogenated
polycyclic aromatic compounds
Polar aromatics, consisting of high
molecular weight phenols and
carboxylic acids produced by partial
oxidation of the material
Saturated hydrocarbons; the percentage
of saturated compounds in asphalt
correlates with its softening point
Asphaltenes, consisting of high
molecular weight phenols and
heterocyclic compounds
The naphthene aromatics and polar
aromatics are typically the majority
components. Most natural bitumens also
contain organosulfur compounds,
resulting in an overall sulfur content of up
to 4%. Nickel and vanadium are found at
<10 parts per million, as is typical of some
petroleum.[4]

The substance is soluble in carbon

disulfide. It is commonly modelled as a
colloid, with asphaltenes as the dispersed
phase and maltenes as the continuous
phase.[17] "It is almost impossible to
separate and identify all the different
molecules of asphalt, because the number
of molecules with different chemical
structure is extremely large".[18]

Asphalt may be confused with coal tar,

which is a visually similar black,
thermoplastic material produced by the
destructive distillation of coal. During the
early and mid-20th century, when town gas
was produced, coal tar was a readily
available byproduct and extensively used
as the binder for road aggregates. The
addition of coal tar to macadam roads led
to the word "tarmac", which is now used in
common parlance to refer to road-making
materials. However, since the 1970s, when
natural gas succeeded town gas, asphalt
has completely overtaken the use of coal
tar in these applications. Other examples
of this confusion include the La Brea Tar
Pits and the Canadian oil sands, both of
which actually contain natural bitumen
rather than tar. "Pitch" is another term
sometimes informally used at times to
refer to asphalt, as in Pitch Lake.

Additives, mixtures and

contaminants
…

For economic and other reasons, asphalt

is sometimes sold combined with other
materials, often without being labeled as
anything other than simply "asphalt".[19]
Of particular note is the use of re-refined
engine oil bottoms – "REOB" or "REOBs"—
the residue of recycled automotive engine
oil collected from the bottoms of re-
refining vacuum distillation towers, in the
manufacture of asphalt. REOB contains
various elements and compounds found in
recycled engine oil: additives to the
original oil and materials accumulating
from its circulation in the engine (typically
iron and copper). Some research has
indicated a correlation between this
adulteration of asphalt and poorer-
performing pavement.[19]

Occurrence
Bituminous outcrop of the Puy de la Poix, Clermont-
Ferrand, France

The majority of asphalt used commercially

is obtained from petroleum.[20]
Nonetheless, large amounts of asphalt
occur in concentrated form in nature.
Naturally occurring deposits of bitumen
are formed from the remains of ancient,
microscopic algae (diatoms) and other
once-living things. These remains were
deposited in the mud on the bottom of the
ocean or lake where the organisms lived.
Under the heat (above 50 °C) and pressure
of burial deep in the earth, the remains
were transformed into materials such as
bitumen, kerogen, or petroleum.

Natural deposits of bitumen include lakes

such as the Pitch Lake in Trinidad and
Tobago and Lake Bermudez in Venezuela.
Natural seeps occur in the La Brea Tar Pits
and in the Dead Sea.

Bitumen also occurs in unconsolidated

sandstones known as "oil sands" in
Alberta, Canada, and the similar "tar
sands" in Utah, US. The Canadian province
of Alberta has most of the world's
reserves, in three huge deposits covering
142,000 square kilometres (55,000 sq mi),
an area larger than England or New York
state. These bituminous sands contain
166 billion barrels (26.4 ×109 m3) of
commercially established oil reserves,
giving Canada the third largest oil reserves
in the world. Although historically it was
used without refining to pave roads, nearly
all of the output is now used as raw
material for oil refineries in Canada and
the United States.[8]
The world's largest deposit of natural
bitumen, known as the Athabasca oil
sands, is located in the McMurray
Formation of Northern Alberta. This
formation is from the early Cretaceous,
and is composed of numerous lenses of
oil-bearing sand with up to 20% oil.[21]
Isotopic studies show the oil deposits to
be about 110 million years old.[22] Two
smaller but still very large formations
occur in the Peace River oil sands and the
Cold Lake oil sands, to the west and
southeast of the Athabasca oil sands,
respectively. Of the Alberta deposits, only
parts of the Athabasca oil sands are
shallow enough to be suitable for surface
mining. The other 80% has to be produced
by oil wells using enhanced oil recovery
techniques like steam-assisted gravity
drainage.[23]

Much smaller heavy oil or bitumen

deposits also occur in the Uinta Basin in
Utah, US. The Tar Sand Triangle deposit,
for example, is roughly 6% bitumen.[21]

Bitumen may occur in hydrothermal veins.

An example of this is within the Uinta
Basin of Utah, in the US, where there is a
swarm of laterally and vertically extensive
veins composed of a solid hydrocarbon
termed Gilsonite. These veins formed by
the polymerization and solidification of
hydrocarbons that were mobilized from
the deeper oil shales of the Green River
Formation during burial and diagenesis.[24]

Bitumen is similar to the organic matter in

carbonaceous meteorites.[25] However,
detailed studies have shown these
materials to be distinct.[26] The vast
Alberta bitumen resources are considered
to have started out as living material from
marine plants and animals, mainly algae,
that died millions of years ago when an
ancient ocean covered Alberta. They were
covered by mud, buried deeply over time,
and gently cooked into oil by geothermal
heat at a temperature of 50 to 150 °C (120
to 300 °F). Due to pressure from the rising
of the Rocky Mountains in southwestern
Alberta, 80 to 55 million years ago, the oil
was driven northeast hundreds of
kilometres and trapped into underground
sand deposits left behind by ancient river
beds and ocean beaches, thus forming the
oil sands.[23]

History

Ancient times …

The use of natural bitumen for

waterproofing, and as an adhesive dates
at least to the fifth millennium BC, with a
crop storage basket discovered in
Mehrgarh, of the Indus Valley Civilization,
lined with it.[27] By the 3rd millennium BC
refined rock asphalt was in use in the
region, and was used to waterproof the
Great Bath in Mohenjo-daro.

In the ancient Middle East, the Sumerians

used natural bitumen deposits for mortar
between bricks and stones, to cement
parts of carvings, such as eyes, into place,
for ship caulking, and for waterproofing.[2]
The Greek historian Herodotus said hot
bitumen was used as mortar in the walls
of Babylon.[28]
The 1 kilometre (0.62 mi) long Euphrates
Tunnel beneath the river Euphrates at
Babylon in the time of Queen Semiramis
(c. 800 BC) was reportedly constructed of
burnt bricks covered with bitumen as a
waterproofing agent.[2]

Bitumen was used by ancient Egyptians to

embalm mummies.[2][29] The Persian word
for asphalt is moom, which is related to
the English word mummy. The Egyptians'
primary source of bitumen was the Dead
Sea, which the Romans knew as Palus
Asphaltites (Asphalt Lake).
In approximately 40 AD, Dioscorides
described the Dead Sea material as
Judaicum bitumen, and noted other places
in the region where it could be found.[30]
The Sidon bitumen is thought to refer to
material found at Hasbeya in Lebanon.[31]
Pliny also refers to bitumen being found in
Epirus. Bitumen was a valuable strategic
resource. It was the object of the first
known battle for a hydrocarbon deposit –
between the Seleucids and the Nabateans
in 312 BC.[32]

In the ancient Far East, natural bitumen

was slowly boiled to get rid of the higher
fractions, leaving a thermoplastic material
of higher molecular weight that when
layered on objects became quite hard
upon cooling. This was used to cover
objects that needed waterproofing,[2] such
as scabbards and other items. Statuettes
of household deities were also cast with
this type of material in Japan, and
probably also in China.

In North America, archaeological recovery

has indicated that bitumen was
sometimes used to adhere stone projectile
points to wooden shafts.[33] In Canada,
aboriginal people used bitumen seeping
out of the banks of the Athabasca and
other rivers to waterproof birch bark
canoes, and also heated it in smudge pots
to ward off mosquitoes in the summer.[23]

Continental Europe …

In 1553, Pierre Belon described in his work

Observations that pissasphalto, a mixture
of pitch and bitumen, was used in the
Republic of Ragusa (now Dubrovnik,
Croatia) for tarring of ships.[34]

An 1838 edition of Mechanics Magazine

cites an early use of asphalt in France. A
pamphlet dated 1621, by "a certain
Monsieur d'Eyrinys, states that he had
discovered the existence (of asphaltum) in
large quantities in the vicinity of
Neufchatel", and that he proposed to use it
in a variety of ways – "principally in the
construction of air-proof granaries, and in
protecting, by means of the arches, the
water-courses in the city of Paris from the
intrusion of dirt and filth", which at that
time made the water unusable. "He
expatiates also on the excellence of this
material for forming level and durable
terraces" in palaces, "the notion of forming
such terraces in the streets not one likely
to cross the brain of a Parisian of that
generation".[35]
But the substance was generally neglected
in France until the revolution of 1830. In
the 1830s there was a surge of interest,
and asphalt became widely used "for
pavements, flat roofs, and the lining of
cisterns, and in England, some use of it
had been made of it for similar purposes".
Its rise in Europe was "a sudden
phenomenon", after natural deposits were
found "in France at Osbann (Bas-Rhin), the
Parc (Ain) and the Puy-de-la-Poix (Puy-de-
Dôme)", although it could also be made
artificially.[36] One of the earliest uses in
France was the laying of about 24,000
square yards of Seyssel asphalt at the
Place de la Concorde in 1835.[37]
United Kingdom …

Among the earlier uses of bitumen in the

United Kingdom was for etching. William
Salmon's Polygraphice (1673) provides a
recipe for varnish used in etching,
consisting of three ounces of virgin wax,
two ounces of mastic, and one ounce of
asphaltum.[38] By the fifth edition in 1685,
he had included more asphaltum recipes
from other sources.[39]

The first British patent for the use of

asphalt was "Cassell's patent asphalte or
bitumen" in 1834.[36] Then on 25
November 1837, Richard Tappin Claridge
patented the use of Seyssel asphalt
(patent #7849), for use in asphalte
pavement,[40][41] having seen it employed
in France and Belgium when visiting with
Frederick Walter Simms, who worked with
him on the introduction of asphalt to
Britain.[42][43] Dr T. Lamb Phipson writes
that his father, Samuel Ryland Phipson, a
friend of Claridge, was also "instrumental
in introducing the asphalte pavement (in
1836)".[44]

Claridge obtained a patent in Scotland on

27 March 1838, and obtained a patent in
Ireland on 23 April 1838. In 1851,
extensions for the 1837 patent and for
both 1838 patents were sought by the
trustees of a company previously formed
by Claridge.[36][45][46][47] Claridge's Patent
Asphalte Company—formed in 1838 for the
purpose of introducing to Britain "Asphalte
in its natural state from the mine at
Pyrimont Seysell in France",[48]—"laid one
of the first asphalt pavements in
Whitehall".[49] Trials were made of the
pavement in 1838 on the footway in
Whitehall, the stable at Knightsbridge
Barracks,[48][50] "and subsequently on the
space at the bottom of the steps leading
from Waterloo Place to St. James
Park".[50] "The formation in 1838 of
Claridge's Patent Asphalte Company (with
a distinguished list of aristocratic patrons,
and Marc and Isambard Brunel as,
respectively, a trustee and consulting
engineer), gave an enormous impetus to
the development of a British asphalt
industry".[46] "By the end of 1838, at least
two other companies, Robinson's and the
Bastenne company, were in production",[51]
with asphalt being laid as paving at
Brighton, Herne Bay, Canterbury,
Kensington, the Strand, and a large floor
area in Bunhill-row, while meantime
Claridge's Whitehall paving "continue(d) in
good order".[52]
In 1838, there was a flurry of
entrepreneurial activity involving asphalt,
which had uses beyond paving. For
example, asphalt could also be used for
flooring, damp proofing in buildings, and
for waterproofing of various types of pools
and baths, both of which were also
proliferating in the 19th century.[2][36][53] On
the London stockmarket, there were
various claims as to the exclusivity of
asphalt quality from France, Germany and
England. And numerous patents were
granted in France, with similar numbers of
patent applications being denied in
England due to their similarity to each
other. In England, "Claridge's was the type
most used in the 1840s and 50s".[51]

In 1914, Claridge's Company entered into a

joint venture to produce tar-bound
macadam,[54] with materials manufactured
through a subsidiary company called
Clarmac Roads Ltd.[55] Two products
resulted, namely Clarmac, and Clarphalte,
with the former being manufactured by
Clarmac Roads and the latter by Claridge's
Patent Asphalte Co., although Clarmac
was more widely used.[56][note 1] However,
the First World War ruined the Clarmac
Company, which entered into liquidation in
1915.[58][59] The failure of Clarmac Roads
Ltd had a flow-on effect to Claridge's
Company, which was itself compulsorily
wound up,[60] ceasing operations in
1917,[61][62] having invested a substantial
amount of funds into the new venture,
both at the outset[60] and in a subsequent
attempt to save the Clarmac Company.[58]

Bitumen was thought in 19th century

Britain to contain chemicals with
medicinal properties. Extracts from
bitumen were used to treat catarrh and
some forms of asthma and as a remedy
against worms, especially the
tapeworm.[63]
United States …

The first use of bitumen in the New World

was by indigenous peoples. On the west
coast, as early as the 13th century, the
Tongva, Luiseño and Chumash peoples
collected the naturally occurring bitumen
that seeped to the surface above
underlying petroleum deposits. All three
groups used the substance as an
adhesive. It is found on many different
artifacts of tools and ceremonial items.
For example, it was used on rattles to
adhere gourds or turtle shells to rattle
handles. It was also used in decorations.
Small round shell beads were often set in
asphaltum to provide decorations. It was
used as a sealant on baskets to make
them watertight for carrying water,
possibly poisoning those who drank the
water.[64] Asphalt was used also to seal
the planks on ocean-going canoes.

Asphalt was first used to pave streets in

the 1870s. At first naturally occurring
"bituminous rock" was used, such as at
Ritchie Mines in Macfarlan in Ritchie
County, West Virginia from 1852 to 1873.
In 1876, asphalt-based paving was used to
pave Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington
DC, in time for the celebration of the
national centennial.[65]
In the horse-drawn era, US streets were
mostly unpaved and covered with dirt or
gravel. Especially where mud or trenching
often made streets difficult to pass,
pavements were sometimes made of
diverse materials including wooden
planks, cobble stones or other stone
blocks, or bricks. Unpaved roads produced
uneven wear and hazards for pedestrians.
In the late 19th century with the rise of the
popular bicycle, bicycle clubs were
important in pushing for more general
pavement of streets.[66] Advocacy for
pavement increased in the early 20th
century with the rise of the automobile.
Asphalt gradually became an ever more
common method of paving. St. Charles
Avenue in New Orleans was paved its
whole length with asphalt by 1889.[67]

In 1900 Manhattan alone had 130,000

horses, pulling streetcars, wagons, and
carriages, and leaving their waste behind.
They were not fast, and pedestrians could
dodge and scramble their way across the
crowded streets. Small towns continued to
rely on dirt and gravel, but larger cities
wanted much better streets. They looked
to wood or granite blocks by the 1850s.[68]
In 1890, a third of Chicago's 2000 miles of
streets were paved, chiefly with wooden
blocks, which gave better traction than
mud. Brick surfacing was a good
compromise, but even better was asphalt
paving, which was easy to install and to
cut through to get at sewers. With London
and Paris serving as models, Washington
laid 400,000 square yards of asphalt
paving by 1882; it became the model for
Buffalo, Philadelphia and elsewhere. By
the end of the century, American cities
boasted 30 million square yards of asphalt
paving, well ahead of brick.[69] The streets
became faster and more dangerous so
electric traffic lights were installed. Electric
trolleys (at 12 miles per hour) became the
main transportation service for middle
class shoppers and office workers until
they bought automobiles after 1945 and
commuted from more distant suburbs in
privacy and comfort on asphalt
highways.[70]

Canada …

Canada has the world's largest deposit of

natural bitumen in the Athabasca oil
sands, and Canadian First Nations along
the Athabasca River had long used it to
waterproof their canoes. In 1719, a Cree
named Wa-Pa-Su brought a sample for
trade to Henry Kelsey of the Hudson's Bay
Company, who was the first recorded
European to see it. However, it wasn't until
1787 that fur trader and explorer
Alexander MacKenzie saw the Athabasca
oil sands and said, "At about 24 miles from
the fork (of the Athabasca and Clearwater
Rivers) are some bituminous fountains
into which a pole of 20 feet long may be
inserted without the least resistance."[23]

The value of the deposit was obvious from

the start, but the means of extracting the
bitumen was not. The nearest town, Fort
McMurray, Alberta, was a small fur trading
post, other markets were far away, and
transportation costs were too high to ship
the raw bituminous sand for paving. In
1915, Sidney Ells of the Federal Mines
Branch experimented with separation
techniques and used the product to pave
600 feet of road in Edmonton, Alberta.
Other roads in Alberta were paved with
material extracted from oil sands, but it
was generally not economic. During the
1920s Dr. Karl A. Clark of the Alberta
Research Council patented a hot water oil
separation process and entrepreneur
Robert C. Fitzsimmons[71] built the
Bitumount oil separation plant, which
between 1925 and 1958 produced up to
300 barrels (50 m3) per day of bitumen
using Dr. Clark's method. Most of the
bitumen was used for waterproofing roofs,
but other uses included fuels, lubrication
oils, printers ink, medicines, rust- and acid-
proof paints, fireproof roofing, street
paving, patent leather, and fence post
preservatives.[23] Eventually Fitzsimmons
ran out of money and the plant was taken
over by the Alberta government. Today the
Bitumount plant is a Provincial Historic
Site.[72]

Photography and art …

Bitumen was used in early photographic

technology. In 1826 or 1827, it was used
by French scientist Joseph Nicéphore
Niépce to make the oldest surviving
photograph from nature. The bitumen was
thinly coated onto a pewter plate which
was then exposed in a camera. Exposure
to light hardened the bitumen and made it
insoluble, so that when it was
subsequently rinsed with a solvent only
the sufficiently light-struck areas
remained. Many hours of exposure in the
camera were required, making bitumen
impractical for ordinary photography, but
from the 1850s to the 1920s it was in
common use as a photoresist in the
production of printing plates for various
photomechanical printing processes.[73][74]

Bitumen was the nemesis of many artists

during the 19th century. Although widely
used for a time, it ultimately proved
unstable for use in oil painting, especially
when mixed with the most common
diluents, such as linseed oil, varnish and
turpentine. Unless thoroughly diluted,
bitumen never fully solidifies and will in
time corrupt the other pigments with
which it comes into contact. The use of
bitumen as a glaze to set in shadow or
mixed with other colors to render a darker
tone resulted in the eventual deterioration
of many paintings, for instance those of
Delacroix. Perhaps the most famous
example of the destructiveness of bitumen
is Théodore Géricault's Raft of the Medusa
(1818–1819), where his use of bitumen
caused the brilliant colors to degenerate
into dark greens and blacks and the paint
and canvas to buckle.[75]

Modern use

Global use …

The vast majority of refined asphalt is

used in construction: primarily as a
constituent of products used in paving and
roofing applications. According to the
requirements of the end use, asphalt is
produced to specification. This is achieved
either by refining or blending. It is
estimated that the current world use of
asphalt is approximately 102 million
tonnes per year. Approximately 85% of all
the asphalt produced is used as the binder
in asphalt concrete for roads. It is also
used in other paved areas such as airport
runways, car parks and footways.
Typically, the production of asphalt
concrete involves mixing fine and coarse
aggregates such as sand, gravel and
crushed rock with asphalt, which acts as
the binding agent. Other materials, such as
recycled polymers (e.g., rubber tyres), may
be added to the asphalt to modify its
properties according to the application for
which the asphalt is ultimately intended.
A further 10% of global asphalt production
is used in roofing applications, where its
waterproofing qualities are invaluable. The
remaining 5% of asphalt is used mainly for
sealing and insulating purposes in a
variety of building materials, such as pipe
coatings, carpet tile backing and paint.
Asphalt is applied in the construction and
maintenance of many structures, systems,
and components, such as the following:

Highways
Airport runways
Footways and pedestrian ways
Car parks
Racetracks
Tennis courts
Roofing
Damp proofing
Dams
Reservoir and pool linings
Soundproofing
Pipe coatings
Cable coatings
Paints
Building water proofing
Tile underlying waterproofing
Newspaper ink production
and many other applications
Rolled asphalt concrete …

The largest use of asphalt is for making

asphalt concrete for road surfaces; this
accounts for approximately 85% of the
asphalt consumed in the United States.
There are about 4,000 asphalt concrete
mixing plants in the US, and a similar
number in Europe.[76]

Asphalt concrete pavement mixes are

typically composed of 5% asphalt cement
and 95% aggregates (stone, sand, and
gravel). Due to its highly viscous nature,
asphalt cement must be heated so it can
be mixed with the aggregates at the
asphalt mixing facility. The temperature
required varies depending upon
characteristics of the asphalt and the
aggregates, but warm-mix asphalt
technologies allow producers to reduce
the temperature required.[76][19]

The weight of an asphalt pavement

depends upon the aggregate type, the
asphalt, and the air void content. An
average example in the United States is
about 112 pounds per square yard, per
inch of pavement thickness.[19]

When maintenance is performed on

asphalt pavements, such as milling to
remove a worn or damaged surface, the
removed material can be returned to a
facility for processing into new pavement
mixtures. The asphalt in the removed
material can be reactivated and put back
to use in new pavement mixes.[77] With
some 95% of paved roads being
constructed of or surfaced with asphalt,[78]
a substantial amount of asphalt pavement
material is reclaimed each year. According
to industry surveys conducted annually by
the Federal Highway Administration and
the National Asphalt Pavement
Association, more than 99% of the asphalt
removed each year from road surfaces
during widening and resurfacing projects
is reused as part of new pavements,
roadbeds, shoulders and embankments or
stockpiled for future use.[79]

Asphalt concrete paving is widely used in

airports around the world. Due to the
sturdiness and ability to be repaired
quickly, it is widely used for runways.

Mastic asphalt …

Mastic asphalt is a type of asphalt that

differs from dense graded asphalt (asphalt
concrete) in that it has a higher asphalt
(binder) content, usually around 7–10% of
the whole aggregate mix, as opposed to
rolled asphalt concrete, which has only
around 5% asphalt. This thermoplastic
substance is widely used in the building
industry for waterproofing flat roofs and
tanking underground. Mastic asphalt is
heated to a temperature of 210 °C (410 °F)
and is spread in layers to form an
impervious barrier about 20 millimeters
(0.8 inches) thick.

Asphalt emulsion …

A number of technologies allow asphalt to

be applied at mild temperatures. The
viscosity can be lowered by emulsfying the
asphalt by the addition of fatty amines.[80]
02-25% is the content of these emulsifying
agents. The cationic amines enhance the
binding of the asphalt to the surface of the
crushed rock.

Asphalt emulsions are used in a wide

variety of applications. Chipseal involves
spraying the road surface with asphalt
emulsion followed by a layer of crushed
rock, gravel or crushed slag. Slurry seal is
a mixture of asphalt emulsion and fine
crushed aggregate that is spread on the
surface of a road. Cold-mixed asphalt can
also be made from asphalt emulsion to
create pavements similar to hot-mixed
asphalt, several inches in depth, and
asphalt emulsions are also blended into
recycled hot-mix asphalt to create low-
cost pavements.

Synthetic crude oil …

Synthetic crude oil, also known as

syncrude, is the output from a bitumen
upgrader facility used in connection with
oil sand production in Canada. Bituminous
sands are mined using enormous (100 ton
capacity) power shovels and loaded into
even larger (400 ton capacity) dump trucks
for movement to an upgrading facility. The
process used to extract the bitumen from
the sand is a hot water process originally
developed by Dr. Karl Clark of the
University of Alberta during the 1920s.
After extraction from the sand, the
bitumen is fed into a bitumen upgrader
which converts it into a light crude oil
equivalent. This synthetic substance is
fluid enough to be transferred through
conventional oil pipelines and can be fed
into conventional oil refineries without any
further treatment. By 2015 Canadian
bitumen upgraders were producing over 1
million barrels (160 ×103 m3) per day of
synthetic crude oil, of which 75% was
exported to oil refineries in the United
States.[81]
In Alberta, five bitumen upgraders produce
synthetic crude oil and a variety of other
products: The Suncor Energy upgrader
near Fort McMurray, Alberta produces
synthetic crude oil plus diesel fuel; the
Syncrude Canada, Canadian Natural
Resources, and Nexen upgraders near Fort
McMurray produce synthetic crude oil; and
the Shell Scotford Upgrader near
Edmonton produces synthetic crude oil
plus an intermediate feedstock for the
nearby Shell Oil Refinery.[82] A sixth
upgrader, under construction in 2015 near
Redwater, Alberta, will upgrade half of its
crude bitumen directly to diesel fuel, with
the remainder of the output being sold as
feedstock to nearby oil refineries and
petrochemical plants.[83]

Non-upgraded crude bitumen …

Canadian bitumen does not differ

substantially from oils such as Venezuelan
extra-heavy and Mexican heavy oil in
chemical composition, and the real
difficulty is moving the extremely viscous
bitumen through oil pipelines to the
refinery. Many modern oil refineries are
extremely sophisticated and can process
non-upgraded bitumen directly into
products such as gasoline, diesel fuel, and
refined asphalt without any preprocessing.
This is particularly common in areas such
as the US Gulf coast, where refineries were
designed to process Venezuelan and
Mexican oil, and in areas such as the US
Midwest where refineries were rebuilt to
process heavy oil as domestic light oil
production declined. Given the choice,
such heavy oil refineries usually prefer to
buy bitumen rather than synthetic oil
because the cost is lower, and in some
cases because they prefer to produce
more diesel fuel and less gasoline.[82] By
2015 Canadian production and exports of
non-upgraded bitumen exceeded that of
synthetic crude oil at over 1.3 million
barrels (210 ×103 m3) per day, of which
about 65% was exported to the United
States.[81]

Because of the difficulty of moving crude

bitumen through pipelines, non-upgraded
bitumen is usually diluted with natural-gas
condensate in a form called dilbit or with
synthetic crude oil, called synbit. However,
to meet international competition, much
non-upgraded bitumen is now sold as a
blend of multiple grades of bitumen,
conventional crude oil, synthetic crude oil,
and condensate in a standardized
benchmark product such as Western
Canadian Select. This sour, heavy crude oil
blend is designed to have uniform refining
characteristics to compete with
internationally marketed heavy oils such
as Mexican Mayan or Arabian Dubai
Crude.[82]

Radioactive waste encapsulation

matrix
…

Asphalt was used starting in the 1960s as

a hydrophobic matrix aiming to
encapsulate radioactive waste such as
medium-activity salts (mainly soluble
sodium nitrate and sodium sulfate)
produced by the reprocessing of spent
nuclear fuels or radioactive sludges from
sedimentation ponds.[84][85] Bituminised
radioactive waste containing highly
radiotoxic alpha-emitting transuranic
elements from nuclear reprocessing
plants have been produced at industrial
scale in France, Belgium and Japan, but
this type of waste conditioning has been
abandoned because operational safety
issues (risks of fire, as occurred in a
bituminisation plant at Tokai Works in
Japan)[86][87] and long-term stability
problems related to their geological
disposal in deep rock formations. One of
the main problem is the swelling of
asphalt exposed to radiation and to water.
Asphalt swelling is first induced by
radiation because of the presence of
hydrogen gas bubbles generated by alpha
and gamma radiolysis.[88][89] A second
mechanism is the matrix swelling when
the encapsulated hygroscopic salts
exposed to water or moisture start to
rehydrate and to dissolve. The high
concentration of salt in the pore solution
inside the bituminised matrix is then
responsible for osmotic effects inside the
bituminised matrix. The water moves in
the direction of the concentrated salts, the
asphalt acting as a semi-permeable
membrane. This also causes the matrix to
swell. The swelling pressure due to
osmotic effect under constant volume can
be as high as 200 bar. If not properly
managed, this high pressure can cause
fractures in the near field of a disposal
gallery of bituminised medium-level waste.
When the bituminised matrix has been
altered by swelling, encapsulated
radionuclides are easily leached by the
contact of ground water and released in
the geosphere. The high ionic strength of
the concentrated saline solution also
favours the migration of radionuclides in
clay host rocks. The presence of
chemically reactive nitrate can also affect
the redox conditions prevailing in the host
rock by establishing oxidizing conditions,
preventing the reduction of redox-sensitive
radionuclides. Under their higher valences,
radionuclides of elements such as
selenium, technetium, uranium, neptunium
and plutonium have a higher solubility and
are also often present in water as non-
retarded anions. This makes the disposal
of medium-level bituminised waste very
challenging.

Different type of asphalt have been used:

blown bitumen (partly oxidized with air
oxygen at high temperature after
distillation, and harder) and direct
distillation bitumen (softer). Blown
bitumens like Mexphalte, with a high
content of saturated hydrocarbons, are
more easily biodegraded by
microorganisms than direct distillation
bitumen, with a low content of saturated
hydrocarbons and a high content of
aromatic hydrocarbons.[90]

Concrete encapsulation of radwaste is

presently considered a safer alternative by
the nuclear industry and the waste
management organisations.

Other uses …

Roofing shingles and roll roofing account

for most of the remaining asphalt
consumption. Other uses include cattle
sprays, fence-post treatments, and
waterproofing for fabrics. Asphalt is used
to make Japan black, a lacquer known
especially for its use on iron and steel, and
it is also used in paint and marker inks by
some exterior paint supply companies to
increase the weather resistance and
permanence of the paint or ink, and to
make the color darker. Asphalt is also
used to seal some alkaline batteries
during the manufacturing process.

Production
Typical asphalt plant for making asphalt

About 40,000,000 tons were produced in

1984. It is obtained as the "heavy" (i.e.,
difficult to distill) fraction. Material with a
boiling point greater than around 500 °C is
considered asphalt. Vacuum distillation
separates it from the other components in
crude oil (such as naphtha, gasoline and
diesel). The resulting material is typically
further treated to extract small but
valuable amounts of lubricants and to
adjust the properties of the material to suit
applications. In a de-asphalting unit, the
crude asphalt is treated with either
propane or butane in a supercritical phase
to extract the lighter molecules, which are
then separated. Further processing is
possible by "blowing" the product: namely
reacting it with oxygen. This step makes
the product harder and more viscous.[4]

Asphalt is typically stored and transported

at temperatures around 150 °C (302 °F).
Sometimes diesel oil or kerosene are
mixed in before shipping to retain liquidity;
upon delivery, these lighter materials are
separated out of the mixture. This mixture
is often called "bitumen feedstock", or
BFS. Some dump trucks route the hot
engine exhaust through pipes in the dump
body to keep the material warm. The
backs of tippers carrying asphalt, as well
as some handling equipment, are also
commonly sprayed with a releasing agent
before filling to aid release. Diesel oil is no
longer used as a release agent due to
environmental concerns.

Oil sands …

Naturally occurring crude bitumen

impregnated in sedimentary rock is the
prime feed stock for petroleum production
from "oil sands", currently under
development in Alberta, Canada. Canada
has most of the world's supply of natural
bitumen, covering 140,000 square
kilometres[15] (an area larger than
England), giving it the second-largest
proven oil reserves in the world. The
Athabasca oil sands are the largest
bitumen deposit in Canada and the only
one accessible to surface mining, although
recent technological breakthroughs have
resulted in deeper deposits becoming
producible by in situ methods. Because of
oil price increases after 2003, producing
bitumen became highly profitable, but as a
result of the decline after 2014 it became
uneconomic to build new plants again. By
2014, Canadian crude bitumen production
averaged about 2.3 million barrels
(370,000 m3) per day and was projected to
rise to 4.4 million barrels (700,000 m3) per
day by 2020.[16] The total amount of crude
bitumen in Alberta that could be extracted
is estimated to be about 310 billion barrels
(50 ×109 m3),[8] which at a rate of
4,400,000 barrels per day (700,000 m3/d)
would last about 200 years.

Alternatives and bioasphalt …

Although uncompetitive economically,

asphalt can be made from nonpetroleum-
based renewable resources such as sugar,
molasses and rice, corn and potato
starches. Asphalt can also be made from
waste material by fractional distillation of
used motor oil, which is sometimes
otherwise disposed of by burning or
dumping into landfills. Use of motor oil
may cause premature cracking in colder
climates, resulting in roads that need to be
repaved more frequently.[91]

Nonpetroleum-based asphalt binders can

be made light-colored. Lighter-colored
roads absorb less heat from solar
radiation, reducing their contribution to the
urban heat island effect.[92] Parking lots
that use asphalt alternatives are called
green parking lots.
Albanian deposits …

Selenizza is a naturally occurring solid

hydrocarbon bitumen found in native
deposits in Selenice, in Albania, the only
European asphalt mine still in use. The
bitumen is found in the form of veins,
filling cracks in a more or less horizontal
direction. The bitumen content varies from
83% to 92% (soluble in carbon disulphide),
with a penetration value near to zero and a
softening point (ring and ball) around
120 °C. The insoluble matter, consisting
mainly of silica ore, ranges from 8% to
17%.
Albanian bitumen extraction has a long
history and was practiced in an organized
way by the Romans. After centuries of
silence, the first mentions of Albanian
bitumen appeared only in 1868, when the
Frenchman Coquand published the first
geological description of the deposits of
Albanian bitumen. In 1875, the exploitation
rights were granted to the Ottoman
government and in 1912, they were
transferred to the Italian company Simsa.
Since 1945, the mine was exploited by the
Albanian government and from 2001 to
date, the management passed to a French
company, which organized the mining
process for the manufacture of the natural
bitumen on an industrial scale.[93]

Today the mine is predominantly exploited

in an open pit quarry but several of the
many underground mines (deep and
extending over several km) still remain
viable. Selenizza is produced primarily in
granular form, after melting the bitumen
pieces selected in the mine.

Selenizza[94] is mainly used as an additive

in the road construction sector. It is mixed
with traditional asphalt to improve both
the viscoelastic properties and the
resistance to ageing. It may be blended
with the hot asphalt in tanks, but its
granular form allows it to be fed in the
mixer or in the recycling ring of normal
asphalt plants. Other typical applications
include the production of mastic asphalts
for sidewalks, bridges, car-parks and urban
roads as well as drilling fluid additives for
the oil and gas industry. Selenizza is
available in powder or in granular material
of various particle sizes and is packaged
in sacks or in thermal fusible polyethylene
bags.

A life-cycle assessment study of the

natural selenizza compared with
petroleum asphalt has shown that the
environmental impact of the selenizza is
about half the impact of the road asphalt
produced in oil refineries in terms of
carbon dioxide emission.[95]

Economics
Although asphalt typically makes up only 4
to 5 percent (by weight) of the pavement
mixture, as the pavement's binder, it is also
the most expensive part of the cost of the
road-paving material.[19]

During asphalt's early use in modern

paving, oil refiners gave it away. However,
asphalt is, today, a highly traded
commodity. Its prices increased
substantially in the early 21st Century. A
U.S. government report states:

"In 2002, asphalt sold for approximately

$160 per ton. By the end of 2006, the
cost had doubled to approximately $320
per ton, and then it almost doubled
again in 2012 to approximately $610 per
ton."[19]

The report indicates that an "average" 1-

mile (1.6-kilometer)-long, four-lane
highway would include "300 tons of
asphalt," which, "in 2002 would have cost
around $48,000. By 2006 this would have
increased to $96,000 and by 2012 to
$183,000... an increase of about $135,000
for every mile of highway in just 10
years."[19]

Health and safety

An asphalt mixing plant for hot aggregate

People can be exposed to asphalt in the

workplace by breathing in fumes or skin
absorption. The National Institute for
Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
has set a recommended exposure limit of
5 mg/m3 over a 15-minute period.[96]

Asphalt is basically an inert material that

must be heated or diluted to a point where
it becomes workable for the production of
materials for paving, roofing, and other
applications. In examining the potential
health hazards associated with asphalt,
the International Agency for Research on
Cancer (IARC) determined that it is the
application parameters, predominantly
temperature, that affect occupational
exposure and the potential bioavailable
carcinogenic hazard/risk of the asphalt
emissions.[97] In particular, temperatures
greater than 199 °C (390 °F), were shown
to produce a greater exposure risk than
when asphalt was heated to lower
temperatures, such as those typically used
in asphalt pavement mix production and
placement.[98] IARC has classified paving
asphalt fumes as a Class 2B possible
carcinogen, indicating inadequate
evidence of carcinogenicity in humans.[97]

In India Asphalt known as shilajit found in

the Himalayas is consumed by people and
is considered to have medicinal properties
according to Ayurveda.

See also
Asphalt plant
Asphaltene
Bioasphalt
Bitumen-based fuel
Bituminous rocks
Blacktop
Cariphalte
Cooper Research Technology
Duxit
Macadam
Oil sands
Pitch drop experiment
Pitch (resin)
Road surface
 Tar
Tarmac
Sealcoat
Stamped asphalt

Notes
1. The Building News and Engineering
Journal contains photographs of the
following roads where Clarmac was
used, being "some amongst many laid
with 'Clarmac' ": Scott's Lane,
Beckenham; Dorset Street,
Marylebone; Lordswood Road,
Birmingham; Hearsall Lane, Coventry;
 Valkyrie Avenue, Westcliff-on-Sea; and
Lennard Road, Penge.[57]

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40. "Specification of the Patent granted to
Richard Tappin Claridge, of the County
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Composition applicable to Paving and
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various purposes" . Journal of the
Franklin Institute of the State of
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22. London: Pergamon Press. July
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41. "Comments on asphalt patents of R.T.
Claridge, Esq" . Notes and Queries: A
medium of intercommunication for
Literary Men, General Readers, etc.
Ninth series. Volume XII, July–
December, 1903 (9th S. XII, 4 July
1903). London: John C. Francis. 20
January 1904. pp. 18–19. Writer is
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Monthly Notices of the Royal
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November 1866 – June 1866.
43. Broome, D.C. (1963). "The
development of the modern asphalt
road". The Surveyor and Municipal and
County Engineer. London. 122 (3278 &
3279): 1437–1440 & 1472–
1475Snippet view: Simms & Claridge
p.1439
44. Phipson, Dr T. Lamb (1902).
Confessions of a Violinist: Realities
and Romance . London: Chatto &
Windus. p. 11 . Full text at Internet
Archive (archive.org)
45. "Claridge's UK Patents in 1837 &
1838" . The London Gazette. 25
February 1851. p. 489.
4 . Hobhouse, Hermione (General Editor)
(1994). "British History Online" .
'Northern Millwall: Tooke Town', Survey
of London: volumes 43 and 44: Poplar,
Blackwall and Isle of Dogs. pp. 423–
433 (see text at refs 169 & 170).
47. "Claridge's Scottish and Irish Patents
in 1838" . The Mechanic's magazine,
museum, register, journal and gazette.
29. London: W.A. Robertson. 7 April –
29 September 1838. pp. vii, viii, 64,
128.
4 . "Joint Stock Companies (description
of asphalte use by Claridge's
company)" . The Civil Engineer and
Architects Journal. Vol. 1. London.
October 1838 – December 1838.
p. 199. Full text at Internet Archive
(archive.org). Alternative viewing at:
https://books.google.com/books?
id=sQ5AAAAAYAAJ
49. Miles, Lewis (2000), pp.10.06.1–2
50. Comments on asphalt patents of R.T.
Claridge, Esq (1904), p.18
51. Miles, Lewis (2000), p.10.06.2
52. "1838 bitumen UK uses by Robinson's
and Claridge's companies, & the
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magazine, museum, register, journal
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Robertson. 22 September 1838.
p. 448.
53. Gerhard, W.M. Paul (1908). Modern
Baths and Bath Houses (1st ed.). New
York: John Wiley and Sons. (Enter
"asphalt" into the search field for list of
pages discussing the subject)
54. "Claridge's Patent Asphalte Co.
ventures into tarred slag macadam" ,
Concrete and Constructional
Engineering, London, IX (1): 760,
January 1914
55. "Registration of Clarmac Roads" , The
Law Reports: Chancery Division, 1:
544–547, 1921
5 . "Clarmac and Clarphalte" , The
Building News and Engineering
Journal, 109: July to December 1915
(3157): 2–4 (n13–15 in electronic
page field), 7 July 1915
57. Roads laid with Clarmac The Building
News and Engineering Journal, 1915
109 (3157), p.3 (n14 in electronic
field).
5 . Clarmac financial difficults due to
WW1 Debentures deposited The Law
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59. "Notice of the Winding up of Clarmac
Roads" , The London Gazette (29340):
10568, 26 October 1915
0. Claridge's Patent Asphalte Co.
compulsorily wound up Funds
invested in new company The Law
Times Reports (1921) Vol.125, p.256.
Retrieved 15 June 2010.
1. "Claridge's Patent Asphalte Co. winds
up 10 November 1917" . The London
Gazette. 16 November 1917. p. 11863.
2. Hobhouse, Hermione (General Editor)
(1994). "British History Online" . 'Cubitt
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Drawdock to Cubitt Town Pier', Survey
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3. The National Cyclopaedia of Useful
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Charles Knight, p.380.
4. Stockton, Nick (23 June 2017). "Plastic
Water Bottles Might Have Poisoned
Ancient Californians" . Wired.
5. McNichol, Dan (2005). Paving the Way:
Asphalt in America . Lanham, MD:
National Asphalt Pavement
Association. ISBN 978-0-914313-04-5.
Archived from the original on 29
August 2006.
 . Pintak, Lawrence (19 March 2015).
" "Roads were not built for cars": how
cyclists, not drivers, first fought to
pave US roads" . Vox.
7. "title" . Catharinecole.startlogic.com. 1
January 1970.
. David O. Whitten, "A Century of Parquet
Pavements: Wood as a Paving
Material in the United States And
Abroad, 1840–1940." Essays in
Economic and Business History 15
(1997): 209–26.
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93.
70. John D. Fairfield, "Rapid Transit:
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72. "Bitumount" . Government of Alberta.
2016. Retrieved 20 January 2016.
73. Niépce Museum history pages.
Retrieved 27 October 2012. Archived
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74. The First Photograph (Harry Ransom
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"Revolutionary Romanticism: 'The Raft
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New York City.
7 . The Asphalt Paving Industry: A Global
Perspective, 2nd Edition (PDF).
Lanham, Maryland, and Brussels:
National Asphalt Pavement
Association and European Asphalt
Pavement Association. February 2011.
ISBN 978-0-914313-06-9. Retrieved
27 September 2012.
77. "How Should We Express RAP and
RAS Contents?" . Asphalt Technology
E-News. 26 (2). 2014. Archived from
the original on 9 June 2015.
7 . "Highway Statistics Series: Public
Road Length Miles by Type of Surface
and Ownership" . Federal Highway
Administration. 1 October 2013.
79. "Asphalt Pavement Recycling" . Annual
Asphalt Pavement Industry Survey on
Recycled Materials and Warm-Mix
Asphalt Usage: 2018. National Asphalt
Pavement Association. Retrieved
14 January 2020.
0. Eller, Karsten; Henkes, Erhard;
Rossbacher, Roland; Höke, Hartmut
(2000). "Amines, Aliphatic". Ullmann's
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Association of Petroleum Producers.
Archived from the original on 20
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2016.
3. "The Project" . North West Redwater
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4. Rodier, J., Scheidhauer, J., & Malabre,
M. (1961). The conditioning of
radioactive waste by bitumen (No.
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5. Lefillatre, G., Rodier, J., Hullo, R., Cudel,
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 . Sato, Y., Miura, A., Kato, Y., Suzuki, H.,
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 . Johnson, D.I., Hitchon, J.W., & Phillips,
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90. Ait-Langomazino, N., Sellier, R.,
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of waste engine oil residue in asphalt
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93. Giavarini, Carlo (March 2013). Six
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1

External links
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Redwood, Boverton (1911). "Asphalt"  .

Encyclopædia Britannica. 2 (11th ed.).
p. 768.
"Bitumen"  . New International
Encyclopedia. 1905.
International Chemical Safety Card
0612
Pavement Interactive – Asphalt
 CSU Sacramento, The World Famous
Asphalt Museum!
National Institute for Occupational
Safety and Health – Asphalt Fumes

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