TNO

The Advanced Solutions for Asphalt Pavements (ASAP) project involves the development of a unique road paving technology which will use a bio-bitumen rejuvenator to rejuvenate aged asphalt bitumen. This technology will help to extend the lifespan of asphalt pavements (roads) and will reduce the environmental and economic impact of roads and road maintenance processes. Recycling and self-healing processes will replace fossil fuel dependent technology. Self-healing will involve rejuvenating aged asphalt bitumen using a bio-rejuvenator developed using microalgae oils (rejuvenating bio-oil). Microalgae has been selected because of its fast growth, versatility and ability to survive within hostile environments, such as wastewater. ASAP will utilise microalgae, cultivated within the wastewater treatment process, as a source of the rejuvenating bio-oil. The solvent (Soxhlet) processes will be used to extract the oil from the microalgae. To ensure the efficiency of the oil extraction process, an ultrasonication process will be used to pre-treat the microalgae. The suitability of rejuvenating bio-oil as a replacement for the bitumen rejuvenator (fossil fuel based) will be ascertained via a series of standard bituminous and accelerated tests. A rejuvenator-binder diffusion numerical model will be developed, based on the Delft Lattice concrete diffusion model, to determine the conditions required for rejuvenation to occur and to ascertain the healing rate of the asphalt binder. These parameters will facilitate the selection and optimisation of the asphalt self-healing systems (specifically the amount of bio-oil rejuvenator and time required) to achieve full rejuvenation. This novel approach will benchmark the effectiveness of this intervention against existing asphalt design and maintenance processes and assess feasibility. The ASAP project presents an opportunity to revolutionise road design and maintenance processes and reduce its environmental and financial costs.

The Project is a two-day Open Science Presidency Conference, which is to be held on 4-5 April 2016 and organised in the Netherlands. Its core theme is ‘Open Science: from Vision to Action’. On day one, the focus will be on: 1. Creating Awareness for the need to make a transition towards an open science system. 2. Raising Political Support for Open Science, the Open Science Agenda and the start of the EC Open Science Policy Platform. On day two, the focus will be on: 3. Presenting a European Action Agenda on Open Science The key objective of this Conference is to bring together stakeholders (universities incl. libraries, researchers, funding organisations, publishers) and member states and EC to agree upon a joint perspective and view on realizing open access to scholarly publications by 2020 and to set up a platforms and infrastructure to make optimal (re-)use of research data possible. At the conference there will be the announcement of an Open Science Policy Platform (by EC) and an Action Agenda on Open Science (with focus on open access and open data) that addresses short/medium/long term goals for stakeholders, member states and European Commission. - Science is about curiosity, understanding, discoveries, new knowledge and maximum transfer of knowledge, not only within science but also to transfer knowledge to society and innovative businesses. - We should invest in science and increase its returns (which is more than going for maximum impact factor scores in a ‘publish or perish’ culture), because research is at the basis of innovation, growth and welfare. The results of the Conference will be used as input for the Council Conclusions of the Competitiveness Council in May 2016, and as input for the Open Science Policy Platform. These Conclusions will be the start of concerted action in Europe on Open Science, raising the impact of science on science itself, on economy and on society by defining concerted actions to change the science system in Eur