MnDOT, Cargill Testing New Plant-Based Asphalt

MONTICELLO, MN — The Minnesota Department of Transportation and two private companies, Cargill and Hardrives, will begin testing a new bio-based asphalt product this week at the MnROAD research facilities along Interstate 94.

Researchers will be testing Anova, which is a new class of asphalt additives called rejuvenators that promise to reverse the effects of aging when the existing asphalt roadway is recycled back into the new road.

It’s expected that this technology will reduce the cost of construction and allow for more recycling to be used, officials said. That could mean savings for taxpayers with the same or better level of service for the driving public.

This project is environmentally friendly in at least two ways:

• The rejuvenator is a bio-based product, using plants rather than petroleum products to add resilience back to the recycled portion of the asphalt mix.
• Cargill and Hardrives will be using a significant amount of additional recycled asphalt product or RAP in the mix.
  • This is asphalt that has been removed from a road, ground up and reused for the new surface. Typical paving projects would use about 25 percent RAP in the mix; this project will be pushing the limits to 45 percent RAP.

MnROAD, as a test facility, allows construction of roads sections that test the boundaries, according to a news release.

“It’s great to see a practical application of innovative technologies, and to really test them the way only MnROAD can. This is an example of being able to take large steps forward in the development of sustainable, durable pavements,” Ben Worel, MnROAD research operations engineer and project manager for this partnership, said in a statement.

“Working with Cargill and Hardrives has been an amazing learning experience for us. We hope this is a first step in establishing more partnerships with Minnesota companies, and private companies around the country, through our work with the National RoadResearch Alliance,” Worel added.

“We believe it’s time for the asphalt industry to look beyond recipe specifications and focus more on real-world results,” said Rob Neumann, global category leader at Cargill.

“Investments in research and development have yielded advances in asphalt technology, but industry standards haven’t always kept pace.”

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