Establishing greenhouse gas emission benchmarks for the asphalt industry – Are short-term reduction targets feasible using current practice or are more extensive measures needed?

Abstract

The objective of this study was to calculate cradle-to-gate benchmarks for the embodied greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions of asphalt mixtures. Reference (median), target (10^th percentile), and limit (80^th percentile) benchmarks were calculated for nine mixture types using 606 mixtures. The following ranges for the specific benchmarks in terms of CO₂-eq per ton were obtained: 41.2 to 66.7 (references), 31.2 to 52.9 (targets), and 44.8 to 75.3 (limits). It was found that the yearly embodied emissions could be reduced by 23.7 % by aiming for the targets, which is just below the 25 % reduction goal set in Belgium. However, these savings could be further increased to 29.3 % considering consistent implementation of the most used best available technologies. Moreover, if the lowest 10^th percentile of this scenario was targeted, an ambitious reduction potential of 39.2 % was obtained. Consequently, a combination of more extreme mitigation strategies is required to achieve carbon neutrality.