Synthesis, Characterisation and Suitability of a Selection of Bitumen Substitutes and Additives

This thesis explored the development of road binders from alternative materials like Victorian brown coal and crumbed rubber. Road binders like bitumen act as a glue to hold the other components of roads together but bitumen producing oil is not available in Australia and needs to be imported. Therefore, coal and rubber were looked at potential feedstock materials for the creation of artificial bitumens. Coal tar, from a brown coal briquette factory, was also experimented on to see if it could work as a road binder.