Mechanical bitumen recovery from asphalt samples

Bitumen extraction utilizes a process to enable evaluation of the properties and potential in situ changes in properties of bitumen after constructing a road surfacing. Currently, the bituminous binder in asphalt is separated out by means of a chemical separation method. Since this is a chemical process there may be a chemical change in the bituminous binder, which could alter the accuracy of the results when compared to the control sample. Another option of separating the bituminous binder from the asphalt is using a mechanical separation method. This method is less likely to alter the properties of the bituminous binder, thus potentially providing a more accurate separation method. The objective of this paper is to describe an experiment evaluating the potential of mechanical bitumen extraction to provide bitumen samples that are not affected by the extraction process, and to compare the mechanically extracted bitumen with chemically extracted bitumen.