Furanic Humins from Biorefinery as Biobased Binder for Bitumen

To decrease the environmental impact of bitumen, more sustainable binders should be proposed. This study emphasizes how industrial humins co-produced during the biorefining of carbohydrates can be employed as a macromolecular binder for bitumen. Humins are heterogeneous polyfuranic compounds, and they were mixed at 50 wt% with bitumen. When the non-water-soluble fractions of humins were employed (Hns), no variation of the chemical structure was observed in FTIR spectra after the mixing. The DSC investigations showed that the crystallization of aromatic fractions in bitumen shifted to higher temperature for humins’ modified bitumen. The thermogravimetric data highlighted that the presence of humins or Hns in bitumen can lead to mass loss below 200 °C. The rheological investigations highlighted some key advantages of using humins or Hns with bitumen. At high temperatures, the storage modulus of the modified bitumen is increased and shows lower susceptibility to variations in frequency. At low temperatures, the phase angle of Hns-modified bitumen is lower than that of bitumen, suggesting less temperature susceptibility as a consequence of a cross-linked network formation.