Recycling Project Gets Help from NASA-funded Outreach Program

With the Federal Highway Administra-tion supporting and promoting the use of recycled highway materials, the interest in Reclaimed Asphalt Pavement (RAP) technology is growing. Jerry Collette worked on an asphalt recycling process for six years and finally arrived at the point where he required technical resources he did not possess. He turned to the NASA-funded Space Alliance Technology Outreach Program (SATOP) for help.

SATOP provides free assistance to small businesses with technical challenges through the expertise of the program’s Alliance Partners, which consist of more than 30 aerospace companies, universities and national laboratories involved in the U.S. Space Program.

Collette’s company, Asphalt Plant Technology 2000, in Carrolton, Ohio, developed the Rotary Thermal Recycling (RTR) System to recycle used asphalt road materials by indirectly heating reclaimed asphalt in an oxygen controlled atmosphere within a tightly sealed rotating drum. After four patents were obtained, the company performed empirical testing on the system for three years.
Based on those operational test results, Asphalt Plant Technology 2000 began the process of modifying and improving the system design. But first, they wanted to obtain design confirmation and verification of the science before locking up the final detailing for shop drawings.

Collette filed a Request for Technical Assistance with the SATOP center in Syracuse, N.Y., and was assigned to Dr. Yoav Peles, associate professor in the Department of Mechanical, Aerospace & Nuclear Engineering at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, N.Y.

Dr. Peles modeled the RTR System, analyzed the system performance and the material conditions, and simulated how a range of operating conditions would affect the asphalt and air exit conditions. He was then able to provide Asphalt Plant Technology 2000 with design confirmation for the RTR System.

Collette hopes to launch the RTR System in 2011.

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