What are the applications of bitumen?
Bitumen can be used in more than 100 different industries.
Due to adhesive and waterproof properties bitumen can be used in more than 100 different industries. The highest global demand for bitumen comes from the Asia Pacific region at 37 per cent, North America comes in second at 25 per cent and the European Union sits at third, with 17 per cent of demand.
It’s estimated that bitumen production currently sits at 87 million tonnes per year. The majority of this is used in paving, followed by roofing. About 85 per cent of bitumen is used as a binder in asphalt pavements for roads and airfields.
In everyday road paving applications, bitumen is mixed with mineral aggregates to produce a very strong and hard-wearing material called asphalt. Asphalt is the most commonly used road surfaces in the world.
Bitumen and asphalt are fully recyclable materials, with milled surfaces often reintegrated into new production processes. Given that global asphalt production reaches approximately 1.5 billion tonnes, asphalt holds the distinction of being the most recycled material in the world
Bitumen also is applied in construction and maintenance of :
- Car parks, Race tracks
- Tennis courts, Roofing
- Damp proofing
- Dams Reservoir and pool linings
- Sound proofing
- Cable Coatings
- Paints, Building Water Proofing
- Tile underlying water proofing
- Newspaper Ink Production
- Painting compositions
- The automotive industry
- Electrical industries
- Carpet Industry
- and many other applications...