Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

Potential of asphalt concrete as a source of trace metals

  • Short Communication
  • Published:
Environmental Geochemistry and Health Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Asphalt concrete is one of the most important building materials in the modern world, but the leaching potential of metals from this composite material to the environment is poorly understood. In this study, metals leaching from four hot-mix asphalt samples were analyzed: two fresh samples of low-traffic and high-traffic composition and their weathered equivalents collected from roads in the city of Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. A sequential extraction, based on the Community Bureau of Reference method, was applied to study the speciation and potential mobility of metals and metalloids in those samples. Major trace metals identified in all four samples were Mn, P, Ba, Sr, Zn, V, and Ni, with the highest metals concentrations generally found in weathered asphalt concrete. Of the major trace metals, P, Mn, Sr, and Zn were relatively mobile, having large portions of their total concentrations in the exchangeable/acid-soluble and reducible fractions. When considering the most mobile fraction (exchangeable/acid soluble) and using Canada as a model country, up to 180 t P, 440 t Mn, 50 t Ba, 36 t Sr, 11 t Zn, and 0.11–3.2 t of other metals and metalloids (including Cr, Ni, Cu, As, and Pb) could potentially leach from the top layer of Canada’s total of paved public roads. To place these amounts into perspective, they were estimated to make up to 22‰ of Canada’s annual release numbers into soil, water and air for these same metals and metalloids. However, they are concentrated in a small area around roads and highways, creating the potential for localized soil and groundwater contamination.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1

References

  • Abraham, H. (1960). Asphalt and allied substances, 6th edn. Princeton, NY: Van Nostrand.

    Google Scholar 

  • Akpoveta, O. V., & Osakwe, S. A. (2014). Determination of heavy metal contents in refined petroleum products. IOSR Journal of Applied Chemistry,7(6), 1–2.

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Asphalt Institute and Eurobitume. (2011). The bitumen industry—a global perspective: Production, chemistry, use, specification, and occupational exposure, 2nd edn IS-230. Lexington, KY: Asphalt Institute.

    Google Scholar 

  • Birgisdottir, H., Gamst, J., & Christensen, T. H. (2007). Leaching of PAHs from hot mix asphalt pavements. Environmental Engineering Science,24(10), 1409–1422.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Canadian Council of Ministers of the Environment. (2018). Canadian Environmental Quality Guidelines. https://www.ccme.ca/en/resources/canadian_environmental_quality_guidelines/. Accessed November 2018.

  • City of Edmonton Transportation Services. (2015). Design standards construction specifications - volume 2 roadways. https://www.edmonton.ca/city_government/documents/Volume_2_-_Roadways.pdf. Accessed November 2018.

  • Environment and Climate Change Canada. (2017). National pollutant release inventory summary report 2016. Catalogue No.: En81-14E-PDF. https://publications.gc.ca/collections/collection_2017/eccc/En81-14-2016-eng.pdf. Accessed November 2018.

  • Essoka, P. A., Ubogu, A. E., & Uzu, L. (2006). An overview of oil pollution and heavy metal concentration in Warri area, Nigeria. Management of Environmental Quality: An International Journal,17(2), 209–215.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ho, H. H., Swennen, R., Cappuyns, V., Vassilieva, E., & Van Tran, T. (2012). Necessity of normalization to aluminum to assess the contamination by heavy metals and arsenic in sediments near Haiphong Harbor. Vietnam. Journal of Asian Earth Sciences,56, 229–239.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jack, T. R., Sullivan, E. A., & Zajic, J. E. (1979). Leaching of vanadium and other metals from Athabasca Oil Sands coke and coke ash. Fuel,58(8), 589–594.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Jukić, M., Ćurković, L., Šabarić, J., & Kerolli-Mustafa, M. (2017). Fractionation of heavy metals in fly ash from wood biomass using the BCR sequential extraction procedure. Bulletin of environmental contamination and toxicology,99(4), 524–529.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kalra, Y. P. (1995). Determination of pH of soils by different methods: Collaborative study. Journal of AOAC International,78(2), 310–324.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Landsberger, S., Cerbus, J., & Larson, S. (1995). Elemental characterization of coal ash and its leachates using sequential extraction techniques. Journal of Radioanalytical and Nuclear Chemistry,192(2), 265–274.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Legret, M., & Pagotto, C. (2006). Heavy metal deposition and soil pollution along two major rural highways. Environmental Technology,27(3), 247–254.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Legret, M., Odie, L., Demare, D., & Jullien, A. (2005). Leaching of heavy metals and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons from reclaimed asphalt pavement. Water Research,39(15), 3675–3685.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Lopez, A., Lazaro, N., Priego, J. M., & Marques, A. M. (2000). Effect of pH on the biosorption of nickel and other heavy metals by Pseudomonas fluorescens 4F39. Journal of Industrial Microbiology and Biotechnology,24(2), 146–151.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Marwil, S.J., Engle, C.J., & ConocoPhillips Co. (1960). Treatment of well drilling mud. U.S. Patent 2,919,898.

  • Merdhah, A. B. B., & Yassin, A. A. M. (2007). Barium sulfate scale formation in oil reservoir during water injection at high-barium formation water. Journal of Applied Sciences,7(17), 2393–2403.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • National Asphalt Pavement Association. (2018). History of asphalt. https://www.asphaltpavement.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=21&Itemid=268. Accessed November 2018.

  • Pagotto, C., Remy, N., Legret, M., & Le Cloirec, P. (2001). Heavy metal pollution of road dust and roadside soil near a major rural highway. Environmental Technology,22(3), 307–319.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Peters, W. E., & Alphaflex Industries Inc. (1995). Asphalt composition. U.S. Patent 5,399,598.

  • Rauret, G., Lopez-Sanchez, J. F., Sahuquillo, A., Rubio, R., Davidson, C., Ure, A., et al. (1999). Improvement of the BCR three step sequential extraction procedure prior to the certification of new sediment and soil reference materials. Journal of Environmental Monitoring,1(1), 57–61.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Sadler, R., Delamont, C., White, P., & Connell, D. (1999). Contaminants in soil as a result of leaching from asphalt. Toxicological & Environmental Chemistry,68(1–2), 71–81.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Sakai, K. (2015). Routine soil analysis using an Agilent 8800 ICP-QQQ. Application note 5991-6409EN. Agilent Technologies. https://www.agilent.com/cs/library/applications/5991-6409EN_AppNote_ICP-QQQ-8800_soils.pdf. Accessed March 2019.

  • Sirin, O., Paul, D.K., & Kassem, E. (2018). State of the art study on aging of asphalt mixtures and use of antioxidant additives. Advances in Civil Engineering, 2018.

  • Statistics Canada. (2018). Canada’s core public infrastructure survey: roads, bridges and tunnels, 2016. https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/en/daily-quotidien/180824/dq180824a-eng.pdf?st=NjuijiRK. Accessed November 2018.

  • Tessier, A., Campbell, P. G., & Bisson, M. (1979). Sequential extraction procedure for the speciation of particulate trace metals. Analytical Chemistry,51(7), 844–851.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Transport Canada. (2018). Transportation in Canada 2017. Overview report. Catalogue No. T1-21E-PDF. https://www.tc.gc.ca/media/documents/policy/Transportation_in_Canada_2017nwe.pdf. Accessed November 2018.

  • von Gunten, K., Alam, M. S., Hubmann, M., Ok, Y. S., Konhauser, K. O., & Alessi, D. S. (2017). Modified sequential extraction for biochar and petroleum coke: Metal release potential and its environmental implications. Bioresource Technology,236, 106–110.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wilson, M. A., Burt, R., & Lee, C. W. (2006). Improved elemental recoveries in soils with heating boric acid following microwave total digestion. Communications in Soil Science and Plant Analysis,37(3–4), 513–524.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Yang, K., Miao, G., Wu, W., Lin, D., Pan, B., Wu, F., et al. (2015). Sorption of Cu 2+ on humic acids sequentially extracted from a sediment. Chemosphere,138, 657–663.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Yuan, X., Huang, H., Zeng, G., Li, H., Wang, J., Zhou, C., et al. (2011). Total concentrations and chemical speciation of heavy metals in liquefaction residues of sewage sludge. Bioresource Technology,102(5), 4104–4110.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by a Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council Discovery grant (RGPIN-04134) to D.S.A. The authors thank the anonymous pavement company for providing the fresh asphalt concrete samples and the Edmonton city administration for the provided historical records on the sampled pavements. The authors also appreciate the valuable comments provided by two anonymous reviewers that served to improve this work.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, University of Alberta, 1-26 Earth Sciences Building, Edmonton, T6G 2E3, Canada

    Konstantin von Gunten, Kurt O. Konhauser & Daniel S. Alessi

Authors
  1. Konstantin von Gunten
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Kurt O. Konhauser
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Daniel S. Alessi
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Konstantin von Gunten.

Additional information

Publisher's Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Electronic supplementary material

Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material.

Supplementary file1 (DOCX 2438 kb)

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

von Gunten, K., Konhauser, K.O. & Alessi, D.S. Potential of asphalt concrete as a source of trace metals. Environ Geochem Health 42, 397–405 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10653-019-00370-y

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10653-019-00370-y

Keywords

Search

Navigation