Life-cycle economic and environmental assessment of warm stone mastic asphalt

Abstract

In recent years, the increasing concern of energy depletion and awareness of environmental protection have encouraged the hot-mix asphalt (HMA) operational facilities to consider the development of lower environment-impact technologies, such as warm-mix asphalt (WMA), to achieve a more resilient pavement system. In this study, integrated life-cycle cost analysis (LCCA) and life-cycle assessment (LCA) is introduced to quantify the life-cycle economic and environmental potential impact of WMA when applied to stone mastic asphalt (SMA) in comparison with conventional hot SMA. The results of this study indicated that warm SMA is more environmentally friendly than conventional hot SMA, while it is economically competitive.