Fulton Hogan, a major civil engineering and resources company and one of New Zealand’s largest road builders and maintainers is teaming up with the New Zealand Government to reduce carbon emissions from process heat used to make asphalt in Canterbury.

A $215,000 partial co-funding grant announced today through the Government’s Decarbonising Industry (GIDI) Process Heat Contestable Fund will see Fulton Hogan retrofit Miners Road asphalt plant in Christchurch with a foaming bitumen bar. This will enable warm-mix rather than hot-mix asphalt production, saving an estimated 277 tonnes of carbon a year.

Fulton Hogan’s National Environment & Sustainability Manager, Dale Eastham, welcomed the coinvestment under the GIDI programme and said it will make a direct and measurable impact on emissions immediately.

“Process heat makes up around a third of New Zealand’s overall energy use, and 60 percent of process heat is fossil-fuelled, mainly by gas and coal. For Fulton Hogan, asphalt and bitumen activities contribute about 20% of our carbon footprint, so finding solutions for this sector is critical for us and our clients. Carbon reductions in this area mean a direct reduction in the amount of natural gas or diesel we are burning in the process of constructing New Zealand’s roading infrastructure,” says Dale.

Conventional hot-mix asphalt is generally produced at temperatures of up to 200C, while warm-mix asphalt is produced using special techniques and additives to reduce the production temperature of the asphalt to between 100C and 150C. This heat reduction allows for a significant decrease in CO2emissions as fewer fossil fuels are burnt during the manufacturing process. The widespread adoption of warm-mix asphalt will be a significant benefit for the construction industry in New Zealand.

Fulton Hogan has committed to reducing its carbon emissions 30% by 2030 and has adopted a net carbon zero target by 2050 from its 2021 baseline. It’s engaged in 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 our 5,500 staff across NZ to find ways to do their day-to-day smarter and more efficiently.

“The reduction of process heat is a powerful tool we can use to reduce emissions for us and New Zealand as a whole,” says Dale.

This co-funding agreement helps Fulton Hogan meet an investment hurdle and is a first for both the New Zealand construction industry and Fulton Hogan. “Providing this capital co-investment will unlock larger and earlier emissions savings,” Eastham adds. “The long-term value in demonstrating the usefulness of lower temperature roading products should not be understated.”

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