ANOTHER LAYER OF SUSTAINABILITY:
BIOPRIME
SAMI BITUMEN’S BIOPRIME IS AN EMULSION-BASED BITUMEN PRIMER MADE USING VEGETABLE OIL DERIVATIVES. SAMI AND COLAS TALK ABOUT ITS USE IN WESTERN AUSTRALIA AND THEIR PLANS TO ROLL THE PRIMER OUT COUNTRY WIDE.
A
sphalt containing recycled materials like recycled crushed glass as a sand replacement and other environmentally friendly processes has been widely championed as part of the road construction industry’s drive to become more sustainable. SAMI bitumen have gone one step further still, to make the road building process even more environmentally friendly, their team of
technicians have created Bioprime. Bioprime is emulsion-based bitumen primer that has been fluxed with a bio-oil, made from vegetable oil derivatives. Using natural sustainable resources, Bioprime is a water-based solution that does not contain petroleum solvents. The emulsion is specifically formulated for use on compacted granular base courses prior to constructing a new surfacing.
Bioprime is a water based solution that does not contain petroleum solvents. 36
ROADS NOVEMBER 2020
The first application of Bioprime was in Western Australia in conjunction with Main Roads WA and Colas WA. The prime took around two hours to cure before a new seal was applied on the same day. Upon return to the site two weeks later it was noted that the 14-millimetre aggregate was well bonded to the base course. Eleven other early applications of Bioprime also found the bonding of granular wearing course to be of quality and no stripping could be found. BENEFITS The two major advantages of using Bioprime are that it removes the cutter from initial treatments and can substantially reduce the period of time between priming and sealing. Kanjana Yindee, Research and Development Manager at SAMI Bitumen Technologies says traditional prime contains kerosene as a cutting agent which can have negative effects on the environment and generates unpleasant vapours. “We replaced the kerosene with vegetablebased oils so that the prime is 100 per cent natural. We managed to do this while achieving the same performance by altering some of the other ingredients,” she says. Yindee says the test regime for SAMI’s traditional emulsion primers is applied to Bioprime, the only difference in chemical composition is the fluxing agent and bitumen. “The prime can penetrate the sub-base quickly which enables crews to continue work on the surfacing within the same day. This reduces cost and time because they don’t have to send crew and equipment away while they wait for the prime to cure,” Yindee says.
