Some are necessary and we can’t switch them off Others help us to provide you with the best possible service We use cookies to personalise content and ads to provide social media features and to analyse our traffic We also share anonymous information about your use of our site with our social media By accepting cookies you will be helping us to continue to provide you with the best possible service Germany’s ‘first’ nearly carbon-free asphalt mixing plant started production in Bavaria following a collaboration between Benninghoven and road construction company Altomünster The Wirtgen Group brand said the new facility – located in Aichach Germany – is a next step in creating net-zero “green asphalt” Paving the way for a more sustainable product is the use of wood dust instead of oil as an energy source the plant used about 600,000 litres of heating oil to produce an annual output of 60,000 litres of asphalt which resulted in emissions of 1,800 tonnes of CO2 Contractor and operator of a mixing plant in Aichach Christian Schweiger approached Benninghoven more than four years ago to collaborate on a plan to use renewables as a power source Benninghoven installed a power limiter that helps reduce burner performance to 12 MW/h the burner is designed with enough reserve capacity to scale performance to match – an aspect that Schweiger signalled to Benninghoven as being vital to the project The company’s EVO JET multi-fuel burner was modified to accept wood dust as an energy source chippings and wood dust can be used as starting raw material which must be ground to a predefined particle size to ensure efficient heating in the burner A supply fan and dosing unit were also added for high-precision feeding the wood dust into the burner the first virtually carbon-free asphalt mixing plant is now in operation fired by wood dust instead of heating oil,” said Wirtgen Group A specialist company was brought in to supply the preprocessing system needed to produce wood dust of a requisite quality the new investment is already paying for itself we assumed that sustainability will be an important topic for the future but the fact that switching to wood dust has already cut our costs by around 20% was definitely a pleasant surprise,” added Schweiger Schweiger said he’s curious what is next in terms of sustainable asphalt production solutions “Using wood as a fuel is obviously only an interim solution,” he said we tend to approach technical issues as perfectionists rather than just taking the better option Despite the goal of the collaboration rooted in reducing CO2 emissions – therefore reducing public harm – Wirtgen Group noted the timeline from idea to production required years of regulatory approval “The undertaking was designed as a research and development project from the outset,” said Wirtgen Group Schweiger set to work on obtaining the government grants and noise/emissions reports – a time-consuming approvals process.” Wirtgen Group said the “lack of experience” on the part of regulators caused the lengthy wait “Legislation from local government included a number of requirements such as ensuring continuous emissions measurement and restrictions on burner capacity,” explained Wirtgen Group the group said the most important standard to meet was TA-Luft TA-Luft is the German Technical Instruction on Air Quality Control which dictates various requirements for companies in regulating air pollution and emissions the design engineering team from Benninghoven got emissions figures to a level 50% below the TA-Luft requirements with continuous measurement,” stated Wirtgen Group “Follow-up checks from a TÜV appraiser team [inspectors] confirmed these values in full making Benninghoven the only manufacturer capable of achieving – and guaranteeing – compliance with limit values for a wood dust burner plant.” For more information on Benninghoven’s eco-asphalt plants Off Highway Research - Market research Unique marketing services that create demand for your products locally Marketing Services Download Media Kits