The Use of De-Vulcanized Recycled Rubber in the Modification of Road Bitumen

Rubber from recycled car tires and styrene-butadiene-styrene (SBS) were used for the chemical modification of commercially available road bitumen 50/70 (EN 12591). The modification process began with the addition of rubber into asphalt and heating the whole amount at the temperature of 190 °C or 220 °C. Under such conditions, de-vulcanization of rubber took place. Next, SBS and sulfur as a cross-linker were added and the heating was continued so that cross-linking of SBS and the de-vulcanized rubber proceeded. In the studies on the influence of rubber concentration on the final properties of asphalt 10% or 15% of rubber was considered. Chemical modification reactions were performed within 2, 4, and 8 h. The results showed that both the modification at 190 °C and 220 °C affected the properties of the base asphalt efficiently, although the asphalt modified at 190 °C contained more non-degraded rubber. Increasing the modification time led to dissolution of the rubber crumbs and its de-vulcanization. Bitumens modified in this way are characterized by high storage stabilities. Their behavior at low temperatures also deserves attention.