Fuel 207 (2017) 64–70

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Fuel
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Full Length Article

Modified asphalt properties by blending petroleum asphalt and coal tar

pitch
Yongbing Xue a,⇑, Zefeng Ge a, Fengchao Li a, Shen Su a, Bingzheng Li b
a
College of Chemical & Biological Technology, Taiyuan University of Science and Technology, Taiyuan 030021, PR China
b
College of Environment & Safety, Taiyuan University of Science and Technology, Taiyuan 030024, PR China

h i g h l i g h t s

We reported modified asphalt which can be facilely prepared by blending method.

Modified asphalt is a suitable paving material due to its excellent properties.

PA properties can be improved by CTP and CTP is compatible to PA.

For road performance, shearing method is better than mechanical stirring one.

Small or light composition changes into heavy component during blending process.

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Modified asphalt was prepared by mixing coal tar pitch (CTP) and petroleum asphalt (PA), and the effects
Received 14 December 2016 of blending conditions on the properties of softening point, ductility, penetration, and elastic modulus of
Received in revised form 13 June 2017 CTP-modified asphalt (CTPMA) were discussed. The group compositions of PA and CTPMA were analyzed
Accepted 15 June 2017
by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). Results show that PA properties (i.e., softening point,
Available online 22 June 2017
ductility, and penetration) can be improved by CTP addition because of the formation of large-molecule
compounds as polycondensation reaction products from small-molecule materials in the blending pro-
Keywords:
cess. CTP is compatible to PA, and CTP percent of 15% is proper under the blending conditions. CTP addi-
Modified asphalt
Coal tar pitch
tion can also improve the anti-aging effect and decrease the elastic deformation of asphalt mixture.
Petroleum asphalt Experiments verify that the modification of PA by CTP addition is technologically feasible, and modified
Properties PA can be used to pave asphalt.
Blending Ó 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction and asphaltene, and its capability to improve petroleum asphalt

The rapid development of economy has rapidly increased the
number of trucks, cars, and other vehicles in roads all over world,
thereby requiring high-quality asphalt materials in paving high-
grade highways. Road performance is improved by use of modified
asphalt. Addition of modifiers can improve durability of asphalt
surface, adhesion of asphalt to aggregate, deformation resistant
at great load, and resistance to freezing. Among the existing mod-
ifiers, natural and synthetic polymers are widely used to improve
the properties of paving asphalt (PA), but such type of modifier
presents serious isolation problem that restricts its application
in modifying paving asphalt [1–6]. Coal tar pitch (CTP) draws
much attention at present because of its high content of resin
⇑ Corresponding author.
E-mail address: tykjdxxyb@163.com (Y. Xue).
(PA) properties [7–12].
CTP is the distillation residue of coal tar produced after coal car-
bonization. Compared with petroleum pitch, CTP shows better
properties of strong permeability, wettability, and tight adhesion
to mineral aggregate [7,13,14], so CTP can be used as paving
asphalt modifier and contains many active components with S, N,
or O element, which can lead to chemical crosslinking and physical
swelling behavior between CTP and PA [15–19]. Hence, a new col-
loid dispersion can be formed, and modified asphalt properties of
road consistence, fiction coefficient, load resistance, and driving
stability can be changed when CTP is added to PA [20–23].
The modification of asphalt properties can be conducted by
changing many influential factors, including CTP particle sizes,
CTP percentage, and blending technology conditions (e.g., stirring
methods, stirring temperature, stirring time, and stirring speed)
[24,25]. Modification mechanisms are still unclear to date because
the structure of modified mixture is complicated and contains

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.fuel.2017.06.064
0016-2361/Ó 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
 Y. Xue et al. / Fuel 207 (2017) 64–70 65

many kinds of substances. In this study, modified asphalt was pre- Table 2
pared by blending PA and CTP under different conditions to sys- The basic properties of PA and CTP.

tematically investigate the performance of CTP-modified asphalt Material Penetration (0.1 mm) Softening point (°C) Ductility (cm)
(CTPMA). Group compositions were also studied by FTIR to under- PA 77.8 50.1 >100
stand the modification mechanism of CTP. CTP 5.3 80.1 <0.01

Note: Error bars are the 97.5% confidence limits of the mean of three replicates.

2. Experimental
3. Results and discussion
2.1. Materials
3.1. Effect of CTP proportion on CTPMA properties
Mid-temperature CTP was obtained from Taiyuan Chemical
Industry Group Co., Ltd. The properties of the material are listed In the blending process, the proportion of raw materials signif-
in Table 1. Original petroleum asphalt was obtained from Shenhua icantly affects the properties of the mixture. Therefore, the addi-
petroleum refinery, and the properties of the material are listed in tion of CTP can significantly influence the performance of CTPMA.
Table 2. The softening point is approximately 80.1 °C for CTP. The effect of CTP proportion on CTPMA performance was investi-
gated accordingly in this study. The percentages of CTP at particle
size of 40–60 mesh added in PA as raw material in the five coal tar
2.2. CTPMA preparation
contents were denoted as x% in weight. For example, CTP at per-
centage of 15% means CTP mass accounts for 15% of the total mass
Base asphalt was first heated to melt in a 0.5 L uncovered vessel.
of CTP and PA mixture. The effects of CTP on the performance of
Then, CTP was introduced into the vessel and mechanically stirred
CTPMA are shown in Fig. 1.
in XKJ-1 electric agitator at 125 °C for 90 min. Finally, the CTPMA
The effect of CTP on softening point value and the penetration
mixture was obtained. The main blending conditions such as CTP
value of CTPMA (Fig. 1) shows significantly different trends. 1)
particle size and CTP proportions were varied for analysis.
The change in ductility value of asphalt mixture with the increase
AE300L-H shear-emulsifying machine was used for shearing. The
in CTP ratio was divided into three stages: rapid decrease, stable
thin-film oven test (TFOT) was used to evaluate the capability of
area, and slow decrease. 2) The penetration value of CTPMA with
asphalt to resist fast aging under hot mixing conditions.
CTP addition slowly decreased first and then reached a stable value
with insignificant change, during which the penetration value was
nearly constant. 3) The softening point slowly increased with the
2.3. Evaluation of modified asphalts
increase in CTP ratio. The decrease in the penetration and increase
in the softening point of modified asphalt mixture indicate that
Basic performance tests on CTPMA and PA such as softening
CTP addition can significantly improve the hardness and viscosity
point, ductility, and penetration were performed according to
of mixed asphalt. Therefore, CTP can enhance the adhesion perfor-
Chinese standards GB/T4507-2010, GB/T4508-2010, and GB/
mance of asphalt mixture. However, when CTP content was more
T4509-2010, respectively. Solvent extraction was frequently used
than 15%, the change in penetration value and softening point
before group composition of CTPMA was determined [26,27]. The
was insignificant, showing the matching effect of CTP and PA. Com-
chromatographic column was self-made and was filled with acti-
pared with petroleum asphalt, the ductility of CTPMA with 10% CTP
vated Al2O3. N-heptane, toluene, chloroform (50%) + anhydrous
addition significantly decreased, especially with the increase in
alcohol (50%), and tetrahydrofuran were used to separate the
CTP ratio. Notably, some CTP particles can be observed from the
samples into five fractions. Among the five fractions, four soluble
ductility test sample. These particles can decrease the ductility
compositions were defined as saturates, aromatics, resins, and
value. Given that CTP contains residues, CTP and PA cannot be
asphalt; the rest was considered residue. The contents of the four
completely dissolved into one system, and the formation of mixed
groups were normalized to 100%. Elastic modulus was character-
material is not uniform. When CTP was 15%, the ductility value of
ized by Shanxi Transportation Research Institute. Infrared adsorp-
the mixture was high, implying that the effect of CTP is compatible
tion spectrum analysis was used to analyze organic compositions.
to that of PA. Thus, 15% CTP ratio was selected as the optimal
Nicolet iS50 FTIR was employed with wavelength ranging from
proportion.
400 cm1 to 4000 cm1. Asphalt samples were ground into
powders, prepared by KBr, and sealed for preservation.
The microstructure and uniformity of CTPMA were examined by
XDC-10A electronic microscopy (Kalino, Ningbo in China). Prior to 3.2. Effect of CTP particle size on CTPMA properties
observation, slide and cover glasses were pretreated as follows.
Slide and cover glasses were cleaned by ultrasonication of the sub- The particle size of CTP is also an influencing factor of the per-
strates submerged successively in a series of solutions including formance of CTPMA. Accordingly, different particle sizes of CTP
soap solution, acetone, and deionized water, and dried in hot air including smaller than 20 mesh, 20–40 mesh, 40–60 mesh, 60–
oven at 105 °C ± 1 °C for 1 h. The CTPMA samples at a ratio of 80 mesh, and more than 80 mesh were considered. The CTPMA
15% CTP (1 g, melted state) were dipped on clean slides, and coated samples with different CTP particle sizes were obtained after the
by cover glass. preparation conditions were conducted in 15% CTP proportion at

Table 1
The group composition (with standard deviation of 2%) of CTP.

Material Saturates Aromatics Resins Asphaltene* Residue

(wt%) (wt%) (wt%) (wt%) (wt%)
CTP 2.0 25.9 11.5 24.8 35.8
*
By difference.
66 Y. Xue et al. / Fuel 207 (2017) 64–70
Fig. 1. CTPMA properties at different percentages of CTP. Error bars are the 97.5%
confidence limits of the mean of three replicates.
125 °C under shearing stirring. The effect of CTP particle size on
CTPMA performance is shown in Fig. 2.
The changes in CTPMA properties differed with the decrease in
CTP particle size (Fig. 2). The penetration value of CTPMA first
reduced and then increased with the decrease in particle size of
CTP particles, and the lowest value (5.29 mm) appeared at 60–80
mesh. The changes in softening point and ductility values with par-
ticle size were very similar, and the curves could be divided into
the rising and falling stages. For example, ductility value increased
first and then decreased; the maximum value of 56.1 cm appeared
when CTP was at 60–80 mesh, showing that the viscosity of CTPMA
evidently improved when CTP samples at 60–80 mesh were intro-
duced. Similarly, the highest softening point value of 55.15 °C
occurred at particle size of 60–80 mesh. This finding suggests bet-
ter performance of colloid structure, hardness, and high tempera-
ture property with the decrease in particle size, indicating that
the cohesion value of CTPMA increased compared with that of
PA. The curves show that the optimal particle size of CTP was
60–80 mesh possibly due to the higher compatibility (i.e., disper-
sivity). The mechanism can be explained by the electronic
microstructures of CTPMA with two particle sizes (40–60 and
Fig. 2. CTPMA properties at 15% CTP with different CTP particle sizes. Error bars are
the 97.5% confidence limits of the mean of three replicates.
60–80 mesh) of CTP (Figs. 3 and 4). CTP with the particle size of
40–60 mesh presented poorer dispersivity in PA (Fig. 3) than that
with the particle size of 60–80 mesh (Fig. 4). This result can explain
the difference in CTPMA performance.
3.3. Effect of different stirring methods on CTPMA properties
The shearing and mechanical stirring methods were used in this
work to reinforce the mixture extent in modifying asphalt quality
[20]. The results are shown in Figs. 5–7.
High-temperature performance is closely related to softening
point. Fig. 5 shows that the changes in the softening point of
CTPMA at different CTP ratios treated by the two methods were
similar. Specifically, the softening point value for each method
increased with the increase in CTP percentage possibly due to
the effect of large-molecule compounds. However, at the same per-
centage of CTP, CTPMA presented higher softening point than PA
did after they were treated by the two stirring methods. Therefore,
the high-temperature performance improved by CTP addition
because CTP contains high asphaltene composition. Meanwhile,
the high temperature performance of CTPMA obtained by shearing
was superior to that by mechanical stirring under the same CTP
proportion. The reason may be due to that shearing can form a vac-
uum area by rotating its cutting head and can enable colloid forma-
tion between CTP and PA, thereby allowing the two materials to
better disperse with each other during blending. The asphaltene
and resin components are large-molecule substances, which can
improve the high-temperature performance of paving asphalt. In
this study, the role of shearing was obvious with low CTP propor-
tion. Therefore, shearing is better than mechanical stirring in terms
of high temperature performance.
The ductility value of CTPMA by two stirring methods is pre-
sented in Fig. 6. The ductility of CTPMA at the same CTP ratio by
both stirring methods was lower than that of PA. CTP particle
exhibited a crucial influence on ductility value. Therefore, CTPMA
stirred by shearing presented better ductility performance. The
slope of the curves also reduced with the increase in CTP propor-
tion. Thus, peptization between CTP and PA might tend to dynamic
equilibrium. Table 1 shows that toluene insolubles in CTP formed
particles into CTPMA, thereby decreasing the ductility value. How-
ever, the vacuum area generated by shearing led to violent colli-
sion among all particles, thereby forming small particles. Given
the change in particle size, the ductility value by shearing became
high.
Fig. 3. CTPMA sample midified at 15% CTP (40–60 mesh). Blank part and transpar-
ent one are CTP particle and PA, respectively.
 Y. Xue et al. / Fuel 207 (2017) 64–70
Fig. 4. CTPMA sample midified at 15% CTP (60–80 mesh). Blank part and transpar-
ent one are CTP particle and PA, respectively.
Fig. 5. The softening point of CTPMA by different stirring methods. Error bars are
the 97.5% confidence limits of the mean of three replicates.
Fig. 6. The ductility of CTPMA by different stirring methods. Error bars are the
97.5% confidence limits of the mean of three replicates.
67
Fig. 7. Penetration of CTPMA at 25 °C under different stirring methods. Error bars
are the 97.5% confidence limits of the mean of three replicates.
The penetration values of CTPMA stirred by two stirring meth-
ods at 25 °C are presented in Fig. 7. Obviously, 25 °C penetration of
CTPMA with the two stirring methods was lower than that of PA,
showing that viscosity capability was improved to reinforce anti-
shear capability after CTP addition. A new and strong structure
was microscopically formed during blending and improved the vis-
cosity capability of modified asphalt. High CTP contents means
small penetration value and high viscosity capability. In addition,
Fig. 5 shows that shearing is better than mechanical stirring in
terms of viscosity capability.
The reason behind the changes in PA properties after the
modification by CTP addition and the mechanism of the different
stirring methods in modifying PA were examined by investigat-
ing the changes in group composition of PA and analyzing the
modified samples (i.e., CTPMA-M and CTPMA-S obtained at 15%
CTP at 125 °C by mechanical stirring and shearing, respectively).
The results are shown in Table 3. The four group contents were
calculated by normalization to 100% without considering
residues.
Table 3 shows obvious changes between the group composi-
tions of PA and CTPMA. Compared with that of PA, the amount of
light components such as saturates and aromatics of both CTPMAs
(small-molecule compounds) decreased, whereas the percentage
of heavy components including resins and asphaltene (large-
molecule compounds) increased. The results suggest that the two
stirring methods are conducive to the formation of large-
molecule compounds in the mixing process, which can be ascribed
to surface effect and/or combination reaction in backbone chain or
side chains of large-molecule compounds. The surface effect can be
a strong adsorption interaction (e.g. dispersion interaction)
between backbone chain as colloid core and small-molecule ones
with van der Waal force. On the other hand, the combination reac-
tion can occur when large-molecule compounds and small-
molecule ones having large number of unsaturated bonds (active
bonds) gradually met closely and could be quickly combined with
by chemical bonding interaction between CTP and PA in the blend-
ing process. The interaction could be crosslinking reaction among
compound molecules. Large or complicated compounds or con-
geries were produced after the mixing ended. Notably, CTPMA-
shearing presented slightly larger amount of asphaltene and resin
components than CTPMA-mechanical stirring did, showing that
violent collision by shearing produced large amount of large-
molecular substances.
68 Y. Xue et al. / Fuel 207 (2017) 64–70

Table 3
The group composition (with standard deviation of 2%) of PA and CTPMAs with different stirring methods.

Samples Saturates Aromatics Resins Asphaltene*

(%) (%) (%) (%)*
PA 6.52 62.67 15.75 15.06
CTPMA-mechanical stirring 5.87 56.23 18.33 19.57
CTPMA-shearing 5.82 54.16 19.85 20.17

Note: asterisk * is the results which were calculated by difference.

Table 4
The occurrence of chemical bonds and physical adsorption in
The relation of basic properties such as softening point, ductility and penetration with the PA blending process was confirmed by analyzing the PA and
the group composition of asphalt. modified PA in Table 4 by FTIR. The FTIR results are shown in Fig. 8.
Three samples showed similar spectra curves due to the PA con-
Samples PA CTPMA- mechanical CTPMA-shearing
stirring tained in different samples, whereas a slight difference in structure
of the samples was observed. For example, modified PA (CTPMA)
Heavy components, wt% 30.81 37.90 40.02
Ductility (cm) > 100 38.7 58.3 showed no absorption peak at 3338 and 1746.5 cm1 compared
Penetration (0.1 mm) 77.8 74.5 72.3 with PA; these peaks correspond to hydroxide radical and car-
Softening point (°C) 50.1 51.4 52.2 bonyl, respectively [28–30]. Before and after modification, the
absorption intensity of peaks at 1455.46 and 1600.94 cm1
increased; These peaks correspond to aromatic nucleus. These
findings show that polycondensation reaction of aromatic rings
occurred during the blending procedure. Therefore, the compli-
cated chemical reactions occurred in the modification process,
which formed large-molecule compounds and finally improved
the PA properties.

3.4. Properties of CTPMA after TFOT

TFOT can reflect the anti-aging capability of asphalt. Penetra-

Fig. 8. FT-IR spectra of polar compounds in PA and CTPMA.
To further explain the mechanism, the relationship among basic
properties such as softening point, ductility, and penetration of
original PA and modifiPA by the two stirring methods (Figs. 5–7)
and their group composition (Table 3) is listed in Table 4. Here,
the modified samples were CTPMA-mechanical stirring and
CTPMA-shearing samples prepared at a ratio of 15% CTP at 125 °C
by mechanical stirring and shearing, respectively. Table 4 shows
that ductility significantly decreased and penetration slightly
decreased and softening point slightly decreased with the increase
in heavy components. Therefore, the content of heavy components
formed in modifying PA significantly affects the PA properties.
tion ratio (the ratio of penetration values after TFOT to those
before TFOT) and an increase in value of softening point (4T) were
two important properties after asphalt aging test finished. Proper-
ties of three CTPMA samples and original PA were investigated for
TFOT. CTPMA-1, CTPMA-2, and CTPMA-3 were prepared at CTP
percentages of 10%, 15%, and 20% at 125 °C under shearing stirring
with CTP particles of 60–80 mesh. The results are shown in
Table 5.
Table 5 shows that the three CTPMA samples exhibited higher
penetration ratio than PA after TFOT, especially penetration ratio
increased from 69% to 72% when CTP ratio increased from 10% to
15%. This result indicates that CTP can improve the anti-aging
effect. The three CTPMA samples exhibited lesser rising range of
softening point value than PA did after TFOT, showing that CTP
can improve viscosity capability and thermal performance. This
condition is favorable for paving construction, suggesting that
CTP can improve high temperature and low temperature stability.
Comparing Figs. 4 and 9 shows that light-molecule component
condensed into heavy-molecule component. Coal chemistry theory
states that the asphaltenes from CTP has strong polar structure and
includes the high-molecular-weight components, which can
absorb some light-molecule components. These asphaltenes can
produce strong interparticle and inter-molecular interactions in
the mixtures accordingly. Such interactions create new bonds
and form a net-cross structure, thereby increasing the mixture

Table 5
Properties of CTPMA and PA after TFOT.

Items PA CTPMA 1 CTPMA 2 CTPMA 3

Softening Point (°C) 50.1 52.13 55.26 55.15
Penetration (0.1 mm, 25 °C) 88.4 55.6 52.9 53.3
After TFOT
Softening Point (°C) 66.75 65.33 65.12 65.48
Penetration (0.1 mm, 25 °C) 55.7 38.3 38.4 38.5
Softening Point Increment (°C) 16.65 13.2 9.86 10.33
Penetration Ratio 63 69 72 72
 Y. Xue et al. / Fuel 207 (2017) 64–70
Fig. 9. CTPMA asmple midified at 15% CTP (60–80 mesh) after TFOT.
Fig. 10. The analysis of elastic modulus.
viscosity [21]. The results in Table 5 also verify that the CTP per-
centage of 15% was optimal.
3.5. Elastic modulus analyses
Elastic modulus was analyzed to study the anti-distortion
capacity. Two CTPMA samples were prepared at 15% CTP at
125 °C by two stirring methods. The results with 3% error bars
are shown in Fig. 10.
Fig. 10 shows that the elastic modulus of CTPMA stirred by the
two methods was higher than that of PA, illustrating that CTPMA
exhibited low elastic deformation and high hardness under certain
stress. Moreover, the shearing method was better than the
mechanical stirring method. The results suggest that the elastic
modulus property of PA can be improved by adding CTP as
modifier.
4. Conclusion
The road performance of PA is improved with CTP addition, and
the shearing method is better than the mechanical stirring method.
The main conclusions are summarized as follows:
(1) CTP can increase the adhesion performance and improve the
anti-aging effect of asphalt mixture.
69
(2) CTP is compatible to PA, and CTP percentage of 15% is the
appropriate proportion under the blending conditions.
(3) CTP addition can reduce the elastic deformation of asphalt
mixture.
(4) Chemical reaction occurs as small or light components
change into heavy components (polycondensation polymer
among aromatic rings) during the blending process.
Acknowledgements
Natural Science Foundation of Shanxi Province – China
(201601D102011 and 2012011008-3) and Postgraduate Technical
and Scientific Innovation Foundation of Taiyuan University of
Science and Technology (20145033) are acknowledged for finan-
cial support. The valuable suggestions and contribution from Mr.
Qiang Wang, Mr. Shixin Li and Mr. Rui Su from Taiyuan University
of Science & Technology are highly appreciated.
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