Asphalt wear and pollution transport

Studded tyres cause extensive wear of road surfaces during winter producing small particles. Besides transporting different adsorbed pollutants these particles also discharge metal ions by their own natural content. The major part (95%) of the asphalt is composed of stone fractions. The rest consists mainly of bitumen, which contains trace quantities of metals. Laboratory studies in this study have demonstrated different adsorbing properties of metal ions, as well as differences in adsorption when comparing stone materials. Two stone materials, a gabbro and a porphyry, have been tested for their adsorption properties concerning Pb, Cu, Zn and Cd. The gabbro showed better adsorption capacity than the porphyry. Gabbro has coarser grains, it is softer, and also has a higher content of most metals compared to the porphyry. In all tests lead and copper are more adsorbed than zinc and cadmium. All metal ions are released at about the same pH (≈4).