Widespread use of low temperature asphalt could save the UK roads sector £46M in energy costs over the next 10 years, it has been claimed.

A three year study published this week by The Carbon Trust and materials company Lafarge Tarmac added that mixing and laying asphalt at lower temperatures can cut carbon emissions by up to 39%, without affecting performance.

Conventional asphalt road material is heated to between 180 and 190°C. If low temperature asphalt achieves 21% of the total UK asphalt market over the next decade, the study says, 260,000t of carbon dioxide could be saved during manufacture of materials in that time.

Project partners hope that the study will generate significant interest from local and national highway authorities and their supply chains in low temperature asphalt.

Lafarge Tarmac will be talking about low temperature asphalt at the CIHT National Conference in London on Wednesday 19 March.

Other companies involved in the project include Atkins, Nynas UK, the Mineral Industry Research Organisation and transport research board TRL. Last October, TRL published a new specification for low temperature asphalt mixtures.

"There is tremendous potential for this project, given the scheduled improvements to our major roads and motorways," says the Carbon Trust's technology acceleration manager Al-Karim Govindji. "This programme can help the UK to deliver the infrastructure of the future, at lower cost for taxpayers and the climate."

Lafarge Tarmac's project director Dr Nizar Ghazireh added: "This project and the development of the national specification for low temperature asphalt will fundamentally change the asphalt industry in the UK, producing sustainable low carbon products."

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