Use of Hydrogen from Renewable Energy Source for Powering Hot-Mix Asphalt Plant

A significant portion of paved roads and highways are surfaced with Hot-Mix Asphalt. Environmental Life-Cycle Assessment studies have shown that, in the production of Hot-Mix Asphalt pavements, major consumption of energy takes place during asphalt mixing and drying of aggregates, more than what is consumed during the extraction of crude oil and the distillation of bitumen. Currently, natural gas is the primarily source of fossil fuel used to produce 70 to 90 percent of the Hot-Mix Asphalt in the USA, while the remainder of the Hot-Mix Asphalt is produced using oil, propane, waste oil, or other fuels. Energy-related CO2 emissions resulting from the use of fossil fuels in various industry and transportation sectors represent a significant portion of human-made greenhouse gas emissions. This study investigates the technical feasibility of using a hybrid wind energy system as a clean source of energy for operating an entire Hot-Mix Asphalt production facility. Since wind blows intermittently, the extracted wind energy will be stored in the form of hydrogen which is considered a lightweight, compact energy carrier, for later use, thus creating a ready source of electricity for the Hot-Mix Asphalt plant when wind is not present or when electricity demand is high.