Skip to main content

Road recycling with Ammann in China

A Chinese road builder is planning to add recycling capabilities to its existing asphalt-mixing plants to meet new environmental guidelines. Another benefit of this approach is that the firm will also be able to substantially reduce its costs CSCEC Road & Bridge is a highly successful business in China and utilises Ammann Uniglobe Asphalt-Mixing Plants for its operations. The firm says that the results have been impressive and during one key road expansion project, one of its Uniglobe plants produced 700
February 27, 2019 Read time: 3 mins
Ammann plants have been upgraded with the addition of RAP circuits for a client in China
A Chinese road builder is planning to add recycling capabilities to its existing asphalt-mixing plants to meet new environmental guidelines. Another benefit of this approach is that the firm will also be able to substantially reduce its costs


CSCEC Road & Bridge is a highly successful business in China and utilises 6791 Ammann Uniglobe Asphalt-Mixing Plants for its operations. The firm says that the results have been impressive and during one key road expansion project, one of its Uniglobe plants produced 7000tonnes in a single day. The plant also managed to deliver an average of 5000tonnes/day for the duration of the project. Both numbers are thought to be all-time production highs for China.

However, production output is not the only key factor for asphalt plants in China. New regulations are requiring an increasing use of ARP in asphalt mixes, so as to improve the environmental profile of construction operations.

“In recent years, as more and more public-private partnerships are coming out, we also are paying more attention to recycling technology,” said Zhou Shixin, chairman of a CSCEC Road & Bridge branch in Shijiazhuang City.

The company has owned four productive Ammann Uniglobe plants for some time but these machines are still well within their effective operating life and have many years of productive use ahead of them before requiring replacement. As a result CSCEC Road & Bridge opted to add recycling capabilities to its existing Ammann plants

Ammann has considerable expertise in upgrading its plants. The upgrade for the four plants has included the addition of an RAH drum that heats the RAP before depositing it in the mixer. When using RAP in a mix it is necessary to have the separate RAH drum because the material has to be gently preheated.. This is because the valuable bitumen in the RAP can be damaged when overheated. After preheating, the RAP is deposited in the mixer, where it is then blended with the hot virgin aggregate. The result is a quality mix with a high percentage of recyclables.

Ammann has a great deal of experience in making the plant upgrades, and was able to complete the work in the off-season, so as not to affect the firm’s production during its busy period.

Adding the RAP capability has proven effective for the customer as this method is considerably less expensive than purchasing a new plant with recycling ability. According to Zhou, this has provided a highly cost-effective solution.

The company appreciates the green approach and the costs savings. “We can mill our own material for public-private partnerships and reduce costs by 20-30%,” Zhou said.

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Italian highway benefits from road recycling job
    October 3, 2014
    The latest equipment from Wirtgen has been used to recycle a stretch of Italy’s busy A4 Autostrada, one of the country’s most important highways. The Wirtgen machine was the first WR250 recycler/reclaimer to be delivered to Italy and was put to work on the A4 Turin-Trieste highway where it proved highly productive. The A4 Autostrada runs 522km from Turin to Trieste via Milan and Venice across northern Italy from west to east. The A4 is divided into five segments, the Turin-Milan, Milan-Brescia, Brescia-Pad
  • Intrame extends its range of RAP-friendly continuous plants
    April 26, 2018
    Spanish asphalt plant manufacturer Intrame has now developed its full range of Flow-Mix continuous plants, from 100 to 400 tonnes, to take up to 50% reclaimed asphalt pavement (RAP). “Today, everything is about RAP,” says Intrame CEO Antonio Morón Hodge. “Customers are interested in the ability to add more RAP, to use lower temperatures and to mix with bitumen foaming emulsion.”
  • Mixing plant and recycled asphalt innovation from Benninghoven
    March 15, 2016
    Now part of the Wirtgen Group, Benninghoven is introducing new recycled asphalt pavement (RAP) developments. The firm says that its counterflow parallel drum system with hot gas generator offers considerable benefits for RAP applications. The new design ensures that the recycled material is heated in a counterflow cycle, flowing against the heat source in the drum. The design achieves a high material temperature while lowering exhaust gas temperature. The material no longer has to be run overheated, which c
  • Durability is crucial while warm mix technology can help disaster recovery
    February 21, 2013
    Why durability is crucial for both emerging and developed economies, and how warm mix technology can help disaster recovery - Kristina Smith reports. When CORE Construction, a 100% owned Ghanaian company, started working on road construction projects five years ago, it was difficult to source the right bituminous mixes. “In the past, most construction firms had a number of challenges when it came to bituminous works, since the local capacity was not well-developed,” said CORE CEO Frank Lartey. CORE’s soluti