Proceedings of the First Makassar International Conference on Civil

Engineering (MICCE2010), March 9-10, 2010, ISBN 978-602-95227-0-9

CHARACTERITICS OF HOT MIX ASPHALT WITH OILY-SLUDGE-MODIFIED

BUTON ROCK ASPHALT

M. Hermadi1 and K. A. Zamhari2

ABSTRACT: A number of studies on natural rock asphalt in the past indicate that an addition of Buton rock asphalt
into conventional hot mix asphalt may increase the stiffness of the mixture. As a result, the ability of the mixture as part
of the pavement structure to distribute the wheel load throughout the pavement will improve. However, the stiffness
increment may reduce the ability of mixture to accommodate repeated excessive flexural deflection which may lead to
crack initiation. Current practice of the Indonesian Directorate General of Highway is to limit the stiffness hot mix
asphalt made of Buton rock asphalt to 2.5 times the stiffness of ordinary hot mix asphalt. The maximum amount of
asbuton should be set based on this criterion. This paper describes the laboratory determination to increase rock asphalt
proportion in the mix whilst maintained the target stiffness by utilizing oily sludge. The latter is otherwise considered as
hazardous waste material which is expensive to dispose. The study aims to (i) reduce the use of petroleum bitumen and
maximize the use of locally available natural asphalt and, (ii) utilize crude petroleum oil waste by product. The study
reveals that fluxing asbuton with oily sludge may increase the penetration of its bitumen. Despite its small paraffin
content, residue of oily sludge also acts as part of the binder. The wheel tracking test results show that the addition
Buton rock asphalt and oily sludge significantly increase the dynamic stability of hot mix asphalt.

Keywords: Hotmix Asphalt, Buton rock asphalt, Oily Sludge

INTRODUCTION ensure that the mixture is not susceptible to cracking.

The petroleum bitumen that commonly used as the
binder in hot mix asphalt in tropical country, such as
Indonesia, generally is of penetration grade 60/70 or
80/100. As the price of crude petroleum oil is
continuously increased, the price of the petroleum
bitumen is also increase accordingly. Therefore, a lot of
efforts have been made to utilise the use of locally
available material such as rock asphalt as an alternative.
Buton rock asphalt is a natural deposit of lime-stone-
rock filled with asphalt found in Buton Island of
Indonesia. In the past, this rock asphalt was not used
widely as the substitution of petroleum bitumen because
of its high transportation cost. Nevertheless, since most
of the bitumen of rock asphalt is hard, it can be utilised
as an additive in hot mix asphalt. The material usually
used for that purpose comes from Kabungka Region of
the island. It is locally known Kabungka Buton Rock
Asphalt or Kabungka-BRA for short.
The addition of rock asphalt increases the stiffness of
the hot mix asphalt and improves its rutting resistance.
However, the increase of stiffness should be limited to
The Indonesian’s construction specification of road
restricts the stiffness of hot mix asphalt with BRA to 2.5
times of the ordinary hot mix asphalt or equivalent to a
maximum of 3800 MPa. It means that the amount of
BRA in the mix should also be restricted. If the amount
should be increased, as was aimed by the government,
the bitumen of BRA should be softened in the first place.
This paper presents some finding on the study on the
use of BRA modified with oily-sludge in hot mix
asphalt. The study aims (i) to increase the use of BRA in
hot mix asphalt while maintained the stiffness within the
allowable limit and, (ii) to utilise the oily sludge in
achieving the first aim.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
Buton rock asphalt
The current Indonesian’s specification for rock
asphalt classifies rock asphalt based on its bitumen
content and penetration. It is designated as x/y whereas x
and y indicate the penetration and bitumen content

1 Ph.D. Student, Universiti Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia (UTHM), Parit Raja 86400, Malaysia.
2 Assoc. Professor, UTHM, Locked Bag 101 - Parit Raja 86400, Malaysia
respectively. Four grades of BRA are recently specified,
those are BRA Grade 5/20, 15/20, 15/25 and 20/25
(Directorate General of Highway, 2006). Most of the
Kabungka is BRA grade 5/20.
Figure 1 indicates the recommended proportion of
BRA in hot mix asphalt to achieve the target stiffness
(Directorate General of Highway, 2006). It shows that
to keep the stiffness below 3800 MPa the maximum
allowable BRA 5/20 and BRA 15/25 in the mix are 5
and 8.5 percent respectively. It suggests that provide the
consistency of BRA 5/20 can be modified to penetration
15, the amount of BRA of this grade that can be added
into the mixture can be increased by almost 60 percent.
The handling of such material should follow the tight
environmental regulation and therefore very costly. For
example, the current cost of handling of oily sludge in
Indonesia is around US $ 70 per litre.
Oily sludge that used in this study is the waste of
local crude oil from Cepu (East Java) and Balongan
(West Java). Generally, the wax content of these crude
oils is higher than those from the Middle East. The
characteristics of the oily sludge are shown in Table 2.
The oily sludge consists of three main substances i.e.
oil, water and mineral. It can be used as BRA modifier
because of its oil content (volatile and non-volatile). The
non-volatile fraction can be used as a modifier to soften
the bitumen of BRA. The volatile fraction should be
evaporated for safety reason. The water should be
evaporated as well because of its detrimental effect to
the mixture. The mineral can be used as mineral filler.

Tabel 2 Characteristics of Oily Sludge

Type of Test Origin*
OS-1 OS-2
Distillation test until 360oC:
Figure 1 Maximum use of the BRA (Directorate General  Percentage of water 34.15 17.65
of Highway, 2006)  Percentage of oil distillate 16.00 2.53
 Percentage of Residue 49.85 79.82
In order to increase the proportion of Kabungka-BRA Solubility in CH2CL3 of residue 83.37 86.76
in the mix, the bitumen of BRA should be soften. For Penetration of residue 115 ~
this purpose, oily sludge should be added as such to Wax content of residue 4.89 4.82
modify consistency bitumen of Kabungka-BRA from * OS-1: Cepu Oily sludge; OS-2: Balongan Oily sludge
grade 5/20 to be similar with that of 15/25. Grade 15/25
was selected because, as the past experience has shown, Toxicity of oily sludge from Cepu and Balongan
BRA of higher grade was too soft and easy to clot so that were assessed and the results are shown in Table 3. It
it was difficult to mix properly with hot mix asphalt. The indicates that all of heavy metals content the oily sludge
characteristics of the raw BRA 5/20 that used in this is well below the maximum allowable limit. Therefore, it
study are shown in Table 1. may conclude that the sludge can safely be used in road
construction.
Tabel 1 Characteristics of BRA Type 5/20
Test Table 3 Toxicity Characteristic of Oily Sludge
Characteristics Spec. *
Results
Oily Sludge (mg/L) Upper limit*
Water content; % 1.2 ≤2 Heavy Metals
OS-1 OS-2 (mg/L)
Bitumen content; % 21.5 18 – 23
Arsenic 0.002 0.002 5.0
Penetration of bitumen at 25oC, 3 ≤ 10 Barium 0.26 0.31 100.0
(100 g, 5 sec); dmm Boron 0.33 0.42 500.0
Wax content in bitumen; % 0.18 - Cadmium < 0.005 < 0.005 1.0
Maximum particle size No 16 - Chromium < 0.05 < 0.05 5.0
* Special Specification of Asbuton (Directorate General Copper < 0.03 < 0.03 10.0
of Highway, 2007) Free Cyanide < 0.01 < 0.01 20.0
Flouride 0.20 0.20 150.0
Lead 0.05 0.07 5.0
Oily sludge
Mercury < 0.001 < 0.001 0.2
Nitrate+Nitrite 2.11 2.39 1000.0
Oily sludge is a waste product from the activity of Nitrite < 0.03 < 0.03 100.0
mining, transporting, storing, and refining of crude oil. Selenium < 0.007 < 0.007 1.0
Oily sludge is categorised as hazardous waste materials. Silver < 0.003 0.05 5.0
Zinc 0.18 0.24 50.0
* Technical Requirement of Processing Hazardous of the raw BRA is shown in Figure 2. It implies that the
Materials (Environmental Impact Management target penetration of 15 dmm can be achieved by adding
Agency, 1995) 15% of Cepu oily sludge or 12% of Balongan oily
sludge. At these proportions, the wax content of the
The oily sludge was pre-processed by heating and related modified impregnate bitumen of BRA is 0.90%
stirring until 130oC to evaporate water and volatile oil. and 0.75% correspondingly. These figures fulfil the
The non-volatile oil of the pre-processed oily sludge as maximum wax content requirement of bitumen (i.e. 2%).
well as impregnated bitumen of BRA was extracted and Characteristics of the modified BRA are shown in Table
blended. After a number of trial and error, the right 6. In this table, BRA-1 and in BRA-2 are refered to
proportion of the extracted oily-sludge to get softer BRA BRA plus OS-1 and OS-2 respectively.
bitumen of 15 dmm penetration was determined. This
proportion was used to modify consistency of BRA 5/20. Tabel 5 Characteristics pre-processed oily sludge
The mixture characteristics of the hot mix petroleum Characteristics Oily Sludge
bitumen with and without the BRA type 15/25 were OS-1 OS-2
Distillation test:
compared to evaluate the effect of the oily-sludge-
 Percentage of water (%) 0.0 0.0
modified BRA on the hot mix asphalt. The optimum
bitumen content of each mix was determined using  Percentage of oil distillate 22.65 2.66
ordinary Marshall mix design procedure. Properties of (%)
the petroleum bitumen that used in this study are shown  Percentage of Residue (%) 77.35 97.34
in Table 4. Solubility in CH2CL3 of 83.30 86.74
distillation residue (%)
Tabel 4 Characteristics of Petroleum Bitumen Penetration of distillation residue 113 ~
Test at 250C, 100g, 5sec (dmm)
Characteristics Spec.* Wax content of distillation 4.89 4.83
Results
residue (%)
Penetration at 25 oC, 100 g, 5 sec;
dmm 65 60 - 79
Softening point; oC 48.9 48 - 58
Flash point (COC); oC 318 ≥ 200
Ductility at 25 oC, 5cm/menit; Cm > 140 ≥ 100
Specific gravity; 1.034 ≥ 1.0
Solubility in C2HCl3; % 99.66 ≥ 99
Loss on heating by Thin Film
Oven Test (TFOT); % 0.016 ≤ 0.8
Penetration after TFOT; %
original 84.62 ≥ 54
Softening point after TFOT; oC 52.1 -
Ductility after TFOT; Cm > 140 ≥ 50
Wax content, % 0.24 ≤2
* Special Specification of Asbuton (Directorate General
of Highway, 2007)
Figure 2 The Effect of Oily Sludge Content on
Performance of the mixtures in term of stiffness and Penetration Value
resistance to permanent deformation were assessed by
using the indirect tensile resilient modulus and the wheel
tracking tests respectively. Three types of mix were
prepared, those are hot mix asphalt with Cepu and
Balongan oily sludge modified BRA, and one with
ordinary petroleum bitumen as the control.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Characteristics of oily sludge after pre-processing are

shown in Table 5. The effect of these oily sludge on
consistency and wax content of the impregnate bitumen
 0% 6% 6%
BRA BRA-1 BRA-2
Bitumen content optimum
5.8 6.0 6.1 -
(%)
Density (g/ml) 2.346 2.304 2.323 -
Void in Mix Aggregates
17.0 17.3 17.4 ≥ 15
(%)
Void fill bitumen (%) 75.4 76.6 76.9 ≥ 65
Void in mix (%) 4.2 4.8 4.3 3.5-5.5
Void in mix at refusal
4.0 4.1 3.2 ≥ 2.5
density (%)
Stability (kg) 1027 1343 1302 ≥1000
Flow (mm) 3.9 3.8 3.5 ≥3
Marshall quotient (kg/mm) 263 347 372 ≥ 250
Retained stability (%) 86.7 89.3 86.7 ≥ 75
*) Special Specification of Asbuton (Directorate General
of Highway, 2007)
Figure 3 The Effecty of Oily Sludge on Wax Content
The proportions of BRA-1 and BRA-2 in the
Table 6 Characteristics of modified bitumen of BRA
mixtures are not at the maximum border 8.5%. The
Characteristics Requirement BRA -1 BRA-2
proportions are 6% that predicted can improve the
(BRA 15/25*)
mixtures dynamic stability minimum 2500 track/mm.
Bitumen content (%) 23 - 27 24.02 23.78
The finding yield that BRA modified with both Cepu
Loss on hetaing after 0.553 0.437
TFOT (%) - and Balongan oily sludge can improve the Marshall
Flash point (oC) - 195 203 Stability and Marshall Quotient of the mixtures.
Water content (%) Max. 2% 0.518 0.271 Performance of the mixtures in term of the resistance to
Bitumen penetration at 11.4 13.5 permanent deformation and modulus resilient are also
250C 100g 5 sec (dmm) 10 – 18 signifantly improved as shown in Table 9. Figure 5
Softening pint, oC - 85.4 83.8 illustrates the rate of deformation of the mixtures at the
Ductility at 25 oC 5 4 4 wheel tracking test at 60oC.
cm/min (cm) -
.
Wax content (%) - 0.832 0.753
Maximum mineral size, 1.18 1.18 Table 8 Performance Based Characteristics of Petroleum
mm Bitumen Mixtures
Petroleum Bitumen
*) Special Specification of Asbuton (Directorate General Mixture Mixtures
of Highway, 2007) Unit
Characteristics 0% 6% 6%
BRA BRA-1 BRA-2
Mixture Characteristics Dynamic Stability
(60oC) :
Aggregate gradation of the hot mix asphalt is shown - Initial Deformation 2.48 1.88 1.99 mm
- Deformation rate 0.0320 0.0113 0.0153 mm/min
in Figure 4. Marshall and volumetric properties of the
- Dynamic Stability 1312.5 3705.9 2739.1 track/mm
mixtures is shown in Table 8. Resilient Modulus:
25 oC 2950.7 5483.0 4875.0 MPa
35 oC 1066.0 2218.0 1977.0 MPa
45 oC 371.3 1193.0 1058.0 MPa
55 oC 230.5 628.9 536.1 MPa

Figure 4 Mixture gradation of hot mix asphalt

Table 7 Properties of the mixtures

Petroleum Bitumen Spec. *)
Mixture
Figure 5 Deformation characteristics of the mixtures

CONCLUSIONS

The possibility of utilizing oily sludge from Cepu

and Balongan as modifier of Buton rock asphalt has been
discussed. Toxicity Characteristic Leaching Procedure
(TCLP) reveals that the oily sludge is a non toxic
material and, therefore, is safe for use in road
construction. After pre-procesings by heating to reduce
the water and volatile oil content, oily sludge form both
sources can be used to modify the consistency of BRA
grade 5/20. The modification enables the increase of the
allowable proportion of the Kabungka-BRA to be used
in hot mix asphalt. The produced mixtures yield a
significant improvement. This advanteges are in
agreement with the aim of the government to promote
the use of BRA.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This study is part of the research work on the

chemical properties and the physical performance of
Buton rock asphalt. The first author hold the scholarship
from the University Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia. Some
of the data was collected during his term as a researcher
at the Institute of Road Engineering Indonesia. Research
work at the University Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia is
managed by the Centre for Research and Inovation.
The authors would like to thank the Ministry of
Higher Education, Malaysia for supporting this research
under the Fundamental Research Grant Scheme (FRGS).

REFERENCES

Environmental Impact Management Agency, 1995,

Technical Requirement of Processing Hazardous
Materials No: Kep-03/BAPEDAL/ 09/1995,
BAPEDAL, Jakarta, Indonesia.
Directorate General of Highway, 2006, Technical
Guidelines of Utilization of Asbuton Book 1 General
No. 001-01/BM/2006, Public Work Department,
Jakarta, Indonesia.
Directorate General of Highway, 2007, Special
Specification of Asbuton, Public Work Department,
Jakarta, Indonesia.