Rubber Modified Asphalt Plant Opens In Hungary

MOL Group, Budapest, Hungary has completed a rubber bitumen (asphalt) plant at its site in Zalalgerszeg, Hungary (Zala site) capable of producing 20,000 metric tons per year of rubber asphalt.

The company has successfully operated a pilot plant at the Zala site since 2012 with a production capacity of 5,000 tons. In the last 8 years, about 150 km of Hungary’s roads have been built or refurbished using rubber bitumen. The annual production of 20,000 tons expected from the new plant covers about 10-15 percent of the domestic bitumen demand, the company said. It also allows MOL to explore additional new business opportunities in surrounding countries, Tibor Zsinko, Vice President, MOL Hungary Downstream said.

MOL started building the new plant in the spring of 2019. The plant was completed in just over a year and, despite the COVID pandemic, continued to be built with the appropriate precautions in place.

The new production technology for rubber grit from bitumen and waste tires used at the Zala plant was developed by MOL in partnership with Pannon University. The chemically stabilized MOL Rubber Bitumen was patented in 2009 and awarded the Environmentally Friendly Product trademark in 2014.

MOL’s patented technology ensures that rubber bitumen can be transported, stored and used at a later date. This means it can be produced on a large scale and applied further away from the production site, the company said.

The potential to license MOL’s chemically stabilized rubber bitumen offers another opportunity to expand use of the product, Zsinko said.

Source: MOL Group

© Scrap Tire News, November 2020