graphene-enhanced roads-story 01 Gipave®
Basic information
Project Title
Full project title
Category
Project Description
Gipave® Patented graphene-enhanced supermodifier for asphalt pavements
- Designed to increase sustainability and reduce environmental impact
- Allows the recycling of hard plastics that are usually considered non- reusable
- 100% recyclable asphalt pavements
- Doubles the lifespan of roads preventing distresses
- 70% CO2eq emission reduction (Reference University of Milan Bicocca)
Genoa's New San Giorgio Bridge road pavement was constructed using Gipave graphene-enhanced super
Project Region
EU Programme or fund
Which funds
Other Funds
The new graphene-enhanced polymeric supermodifer was developed through the ECOPAVE PROJECT
- European Union and Lombardy Region
- POR FESR 2014 2020 /Innovation and Competitivity
a six -year- long research conducted by Iterchimica in collaboration with the University of Milan Bicocca, Directa Plus and G. Eco (A 2 A Group)
Description of the project
Summary
Gipave® is the result of a six years research programme.
The asphalt with Gipave® can be 100 per cent recycled, which reduces the emissions of CO2 in the atmosphere and the extraction of new materials from quarries and first-use bitumen.
The use of Gipave® in asphalt, enhanced by G+® graphene, is exactly aligned with the new Genoa San Giorgio bridge’s sustainable agenda and provides Italy with a shining example of the future of infrastructure projects. We are proud to have participated in this symbol of hope for all of Italy.
Gipave® has been already successfully tested in Italy and UK. It provides significant benefits compared to traditional asphalt: increasing service life, resistance to the passage of vehicles, resistance to deformation. In addition Gipave® potentially doubles the life of roads and runways and the enhanced asphalt can be 100 per cent recycled.
The ecological benefits of this new product will help countries to meet their carbon reduction obligations and free up resources at a time when all national and regional governments need financial assistance to fight the current COVID-19 pandemic.
Key objectives for sustainability
Iterchimica is committed to building better roads, offering chemical solutions to develop more sustainable and performing building components. With the"Ecopave" project, the company took the opportunity to accelerate new ideas and develop alliances. The graphene-enhanced supermodifier Gipave®️ allows to build road pavements that can be two or three times more durable than those paved with conventional asphalt, thus reducing potholes formation and consequently the need for maintenance interventions and the related costs over time. Moreover, the extended service life will lead to benefits in terms of emissions reduction and saving of resources. Gipave®️ contains also a specific type of selected waste plastics that would usually end up in waste-to-energy plants. The use of Gipave®️, instead, allows the recycling of these specially selected plastics. For a 15 mwide, 250 cm-tick and 1 km-long road it has been calculated that 18 tonnes of specially selected waste plastics can be reused, avoiding their incineration (thus saving 1400 kg of CO2 eq). In addition, the asphalt pavements built with Gipave can be 100% recyclable in future production cycles.
Key objectives for aesthetics and quality
The main objective of the communication of this project is to represent with simple and effective images the demanding task of Iterchimica's research:
to develop products to make roads more durable, greener and technologically advanced.To demonstrate that Asphalt can be "green", four young Italian illustrators Alessia Tzimas, Benny Fasson, Giulia Dall'Ara and Rebecca Fritsche (Isia Urbino) have developed an animated project to describe and translate into images how a road built with Gipave can be more sustainable and contributes to reducing the environmental impact of production. The visual immediacy of the output also contributes to convey the sustainability values of Iterchimica research to the general public, and not only to professionals, enhancing the awareness of the impact of urbanization choices and of how disruptive innovation can be thanks to the company’s new concept of road construction.
Key objectives for inclusion
Taking the opportunity to accelerate new ideas and develop alliances
Gipave®️ inaugurates a new generation of roads, sustainable, recycled and recyclable, as well as safe and resistant. It's a technology that can be used on a large scale, in any environment and condition. This innovation facilitates the spread of a green solution aimed at changing the behavior of administrations, companies and people in the design, construction and use of roads. In addition, the project also saw the direct involvement of major university research partners, to encourage the sharing of knowledge and awareness.
The following Universities contributed:
- Università degli Studi di Milano Bicocca
- Università di Bologna “Alma Mater Studiorum"
- Università degli Studi di Roma “La Sapienza”
- Università degli Studi di Napoli “Federico II”
- Università degli Studi di Cagliari
- Università degli Studi di Padova
- Università degli Studi di Palermo
- Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (Australia)
- University of Belgrade (Serbia)
- University of Nottingham ( England)
- Technische Universität Braunschweig (Germany)
- Bern University of Applied Sciences (Switzerland)
Results in relation to category
pdf attached
How Citizens benefit
pdf attached
Innovative character
Long-lasting, safe and ecological roads -
Super-tough graphene-based roads for asphalt pavements
- 1 Patented high-tech graphene-enhanced supermodifier,designed to increase sustainability and reduce environmental impact
- 2 Allows the recycling of selected hard plastics that are usually considered non- reusable
- 3 Doubles the lifespan of roads preventing distresses
- 4 The newest and most convenient green technology
- 100% recyclable asphalt pavements
