A Washington State University researcher has developed a way to use restaurant cooking oil in a type of asphalt that looks and handles just like its petroleum-based counterpart.

 

The road surface developed by Haifang Wen, assistant professor in Civil Engineering in the WSU Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, may soon have Washington motorists driving the first highways in the nation paved with waste cooking oil-based asphalt.

 

Wen recently received a 2014 Federal Highway Administration grant of $1 million to continue his research. It follows a $190,000 grant from the National Science Foundation.

 

Faced with increasing petroleum prices, new environmental regulations, and changes to the crude oil refining process, asphalt has become a scarce and costly commodity. Made from the residue left behind after production of gasoline, plastics, and other materials, lowly asphalt still commands $700-800 per ton, or half the price of gasoline at $1,500 per ton, Wen estimates.

 

After four years working with a chemist and "adjusting the recipe," Wen is confident that his green, sustainable asphalt "is as good as the old-school petroleum asphalt.

 

"I am very excited to have patented a solid technology."

 

All of which has the undivided attention of both federal and state highway agencies. Wen has been collaborating with both and says the industry is "very interested and eagerly awaiting the roll out of (his) product."