(rdnewsNOW file photo)

By rdnewsNOW staff

Collaborative initiative

RDP to turn recycled asphalt shingles into paving stones

Aug 12, 2025 | 12:09 PM

Red Deer Polytechnic’s Centre for Innovation in Manufacturing Technology Access Centre (CIM-TAC) has collaborated with other Alberta polytechnic’s to begin a new research initiative to transform asphalt waste into paving stones.

They’ve joined forces with the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology (NAIT) and the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology (SAIT) in a multi-year project that’s funded through a $450,000 grant from Emissions Reduction Alberta.

The project is aimed at addressing the growing challenge of asphalt shingle waste where searching for sustainable solutions has become critical.

Through the initiative, RDP said they’ll use cost-effective commercial methods to produce paving stones from recycled asphalt shingles and pavement using Sustainable Paving Stones’ (SPS) technology.

This unique polytechnic consortium brings together diverse applied research expertise to support SPS in commercializing their technology.

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The main goal is to build a commercial production unit capable of producing 9,000 pavers per hour.

RDP says a key feature of this unit will be the biomass furnace, which will use wood waste to provide heat, which will reduce the overall greenhouse gas emissions during the process.

“We are excited to showcase what Alberta’s Polytechnics can achieve when we collaborate on industrial applied research solutions,” says Dr. Tonya Wolfe, RDP’s Associate Vice President of Applied Research. “Leveraging our extensive knowledge and resources in high-production equipment development, RDP’s CIM-TAC team will work closely with SPS to map out the process flow for each stage of the paver production cycle. RDP’s manufacturing expertise will be instrumental in designing a process to meet the ambitious production targets.”

CIM-TAC engineers will be responsible for completing a process design following design for manufacturing principles, incorporating digital simulations to increase efficiency and productivity.

This work will include developing detailed equipment designs, performing structural calculations, and generating engineering drawings to fabricate the commercial unit. The designs will be reliant on research conducted at SAIT and NAIT.

Next, RDP’s CIM-TAC and SPS will combine their manufacturing and assembly skills to kickstart the design objectives. With components fabricated by RDP, SPS is expected to begin comprehensive testing of the commercial unit by the project’s conclusion in 2027.

Beyond RDP’s contributions, the partnership between RDP, NAIT and SAIT will perform interactive simulation and modeling to optimize heating profiles and investigate anti-stick surface technologies. Large-scale performance testing will assess the asphalt-based pavers’ durability, both in laboratory settings and through potential field deployments in walkways.

A comprehensive lifecycle assessment of SPS’s commercial system will also be conducted to compare its lifetime GHG emissions against market-dominant concrete equivalents.