ABSTRACT
The Asphalt Institute (AI) provided an industry-average LCI dataset on asphalt binder representative of North American industry conditions through a recent LCA study.
Asphalt binder is one of many product streams from a refinery, so attributing material and energy inputs/outputs to just asphalt was a challenge. The main material and energy flows to be allocated were crude oil, thermal energy and associated emissions, electricity consumption, and emissions.
This LCA was based on information supplied by twelve AI member refineries and eleven terminals in the U.S. and Canada for 2015 and 2016. The scope of this cradle-to-gate study includes raw material sourcing and extraction, transportation to refineries, refining of crude oil into asphalt, transport to the terminal, and final blending of the asphalt binders at the terminal. Only those refinery processes associated with asphalt production were included in the assessment.
Results showed a large fraction of the potential environmental burden is due to the upstream crude oil extraction.
