Bitumen has a number of applications but its use for construction and maintenance of roads either directly or through asphalt accounts for nearly 90% of all demand. Key bitumen types for road applications including paving grades, cutback bitumen, and bitumen emulsions. Hard, oxidized, and blown grades and mastic asphalt are used for paints, sealants, adhesives, enamels, waterproofing, electrical products, flooring materials, back carpet tiles, land and marine pipe coatings and numerous other non-road applications. Polymer-modified bitumen (PMB) is a recent innovation that is finding growing application in both paving and non-road applications. Although there are numerous non-road applications for bitumen, they consume small volumes and road paving is the primary application. As a result, infrastructure cuts have significantly impacted global bitumen demand.
There are different types of bitumen available with different properties, specifications and uses based on requirements of consuming industry.
3) Emulsion Bitumen
Emulsion bitumen is produced by mixing bitumen, water, and an emulsion making material. The emulsion making material is usually alkali salt of an organic acid or ammonium salt which charges bitumen particles. So the bitumen particles expel each other because of their induction charges and float in the form of balls having one hundredth to one thousandth millimeter diameter. The use of such kind of bitumen decreases environment pollution and as oil or flammable solvents aren’t used the danger of flaming during transportation is decreased.
.