News

There used to be only two ways to transport bitumen: either in liquid form, requiring constant heating and therefore only cost-effective when transporting large amounts, or cooled in metal barrels, which means high packaging costs particularly in times of rising raw material prices. This is because it is very expensive to manufacture metal barrels, the substance is very challenging, when they are empty they are difficult to transport and after use they become contaminated scrap etal and present a waste disposal problem. All this made bitumen - up until now - virtually unaffordable for roadmaking, in particular for developing countries.

The BituBag System developed by the Pörner engineering company makes it possible for the first time to transport and store bitumen in large amounts on conventional ships, railway cars and trucks without complex special equipment. This reduces the packaging costs compared to the use of metal barrels by up to 70 percent.

The central element of the BituBag System is a bag made of polypropylene which is stabilized by filling it with bitumen.

The bags are also easy to transport when they are empty and they are so simple to make that they can be inexpensively produced in developing countries as well. To fill them, Pörner has developed a special patented cooling technology that enables bitumen to be cooled down to exactly the temperature required for it to still be liquid enough to fill the bags yet not hot enough to destroy the plastic packaging.

The jury is convinced that this Austrian innovation will change the world market for bitumen. Above all, it will make it noticeably easier for emerging and developing countries to access inexpensive roadmaking material. For this reason it has decided to present the Austrian Consulting Award 2005 to Pörner Ingenieurgesellschaft.