Eurobitume France hosts 2021 e-Rencontres Bitume

Europe |

More than 100 people associated with the bitumen industry in France, including stakeholders, attended Eurobitume France’s annual Rencontres Bitume on Thursday 18 March, which for the first time took place online – because of Covid restrictions – rather than at the Fédération Nationale des Travaux Publics (FNTP) in Paris.

Eurobitume France Director Jean-Michel Michou opened the event by welcoming the participants. He then presented a summary of the important work Eurobitume had delivered in the last year on HSE, Technical and communication, and provided an update on the forthcoming E&E Congress:

 

 

  • Improving the safe handling of bitumen and the new quarterly reporting of incidents and near-misses
  • Communicating the sustainability of bitumen, its application as a recyclable construction product and the recently updated Eurobitume LCI report
  • Eurobitume's deep involvement in standardization, at local and European levels
  • Why people should attend the forthcoming E&E Congress 2021, which will be online

Expert presentations were then made by:

  • Franck Chevallier, Refining Manager of UFIP (the French Association of the Petroleum Industry). He explained how the refining industry in France is working towards achieving carbon neutrality and meeting Europe's new Green Deal regulatory requirements
  • Didier Colin, Director General of Idrrim (the Institute of Roads, Streets and Infrastructures for Mobility), spoke about the new pact of commitment made by the mobility infrastructures actors. He also discussed the need to provide managers with concrete, sustainable responses to the challenges posed by climate change and the ecological and digitisation transitions that society is undergoing
  • Bernard Schaffner from BN Pétrole, Secretary of CEN TC336 and the French Mirror Committee dealing with bitumen standardisation, detailed the progress made on bitumen standardisation. He also explained the challenges posed by the changes of approach decided by the European Commission with regard to CPR (Construction Product Regulation) and EPD (Environmental Product Declaration).

The first four speakers then took part in a live chat Q&A session with online participants.

  • Laurent Porot from Kraton, chair of the Eurobitume Task Force Environmental impact and LCA, explained Eurobitume’s revised Life Cycle Inventory (LCI) of bitumen. This is based on an internationally-approved ’cradle to gate’ calculation principle, verified by independent experts and the data can be easily exported into bitumen user databases.
  • Brice Delaporte, Deputy Director of Technical Affairs of Routes de France, the French road manufacturers’ professional association, explored the environmental impact of bituminous pavements.
  • Next to speak was Pascal Rossigny from Cerema, the major French public agency for developing and capitalising on public expertise in planning, regional cohesion and ecological and energy transition. He is also Chair of Idrrim’s Operational Committee dedicated to infrastructure management. Pascal explained the asset management of road infrastructures made of asphalt mixes, and highlighted bitumen’s important contribution in infrastructure.
  • Nicolas Hautière, who is the Université Gustave Eiffel’s Deputy Director and also Deputy to the Director in charge of R5G (Road 5th generation), explained the progress of the 5th generation road project, which sets out for 5th generation roads to be automated, safe, sustainable and suited to travel needs.

A second live chat Q&A enabled participants to question the latest four speakers, before Eurobitume President Frédérique Cointe, ExxonMobil’s EAME Asphalt Technical Manager, closed the event by thanking all the speakers and emphasising the importance of the upcoming E&E Congress on 15-17 June, 2021.

To download the presentations, please click here.

To download the file of answers to the questions that we were not able to answer on March 18 because of a lack of time, click here.

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