Bio-asphalt created from waste cooking oil by WSU researcher

Haifang Wen, who is the assistant professor of Civil Engineering in the Department of Civil and in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering in the Washington State University (WSU), has recently developed a technique to substitute the crude oil used in the production of asphalt with restaurant cooking oil in order to create a sustainable bio-asphalt which looks and behaves exactly like its counterpart made from petroleum.

Mr. Haifang Wen is planning to build a trial road this summer with a length of at least a quarter mile. He has already subjected the bio-asphalt to a number of stress tests like intense heat, compression, freezing temperatures and loading.

The researcher had received a grant of $190,000 from the National Science Foundation and this was followed by a much more recent$1 million 2014 Federal Highway Administration grant given to him to help continue his research.

Due to the reduction of fossil fuels and other factors, asphalt has become scarce and expensive. The USA consumes over 30 million tons of asphalt binder which is used in the construction of roads and roofing shingles. Wen believes that he can bring down the price of asphalt binder to an amount below $200 per ton with the help of his waste cooking oil technology. The source of this article is:http://greenchemicalsblog.com/2014/03/19/wsu-develops-waste-cooking-oil-based-asphalt