The first of Fulton Hogan’s four new Marini 2500 batch asphalt plants has been commissioned in the Waikato, as part of a major enhancement of the company’s asphalt production technology and capability across New Zealand.

Producing up to 200 tonnes per hour, the new plant has almost three times the capacity of the existing plant, which will be decommissioned.

Environmental gains were a major factor in the Board’s decision to invest in this technology.  Although the figures can only be confirmed once production is underway, the manufacturer – Italy’s Marini – anticipates that, overall, 30 percent less energy will be required per tonne of asphalt produced.

Advances in technology since the existing 35-year-old plant was built enable production of warm mix asphalt – typically made at between 100⁰C and 150⁰C, compared with 200⁰C for traditional asphalt production.

“With process heat constituting around a third of this country’s total energy use, and asphalt and bitumen activities contributing around 20% of Fulton Hogan’s New Zealand carbon footprint, the long-term value in lower temperature alternatives shouldn’t be understated,” says NZ Environment and Sustainability Manager, Dale Eastham.

The new plant also enables mixes to contain up to 30% recycled asphalt, compared with around 10% in the current plant.

With 210 tonnes of hot storage and a 12 tonne direct discharge chute for small production runs, the plant also increases opportunities to market to the retail trade, meeting the needs of a wider market and capitalising on the plant’s capacity.

The same plant will soon be commissioned at Stevenson’s Drury quarry, followed by more across the North Island.

Fulton Hogan is also investing in retrofitting existing plants.  In April last year the company received a $215,000 partial co-funding grant from the Government’s Decarbonising Industry (GIDI) Process Heat Contestable Fund to help retrofit the Miners Road, Christchurch, asphalt plant with a foaming bitumen bar. Enabling warm-mix rather than hot-mix asphalt production, this is saving around 270 tonnes of emitted carbon a year. This retrofit is supporting our campaign nationally to increase client adoption of reduced energy asphalt – asphalt being produced at lower temperatures to reduce the fuel burn.

Fulton Hogan has committed to reducing scope 1 and 2 carbon emissions by 30% by 2030 and has a net carbon zero target by 2050. Both of these are from a 2021 baseline. This means a company-wide effort to ‘engineer out’ and drive down emissions through reducing diesel use, investing in modern plant and equipment, making use of remote access technologies, and empowering people to find ways to do their day-to-day more efficiently.