[ Le grès bitumineux de Bemolanga : une matière première locale pour le revêtement des routes en terre de Madagascar ]
Volume 24, Issue 2, June 2016, Pages 397–406
Simon Rakotoarison1, Eddy H. Rasolomanana2, Baholy Robijaona3, and Koto-te-Nyiwa Ngbolua4
1 Ecole Supérieure Polytechnique d’Antananarivo, Madagascar
2 Ecole Supérieure Polytechnique d’Antananarivo, Madagascar
3 Ecole Supérieure Polytechnique d’Antananarivo, Madagascar
4 Département de Biologie, Faculté des Sciences, Université de Kinshasa, BP 190 Kinshasa XI, RD Congo
Original language: French
Copyright © 2016 ISSR Journals. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
The price of the crude is continuing to scaling down, but one wonders what would be the consequence of that crude price drop off on the bitumen produced at the refineries. Madagascar would have a solution to use either the Bemolanga tar sands naturally (as it is) or to use extracted bitumen to replace the imported bitumen for tarring its roads. In fact, Madagascar is importing bitumen since 1960 and needsmuch foreign currency to pay out the bitumen product bills; nevertheless it has the possibility to use these petroleum materials to tar its roads. Using only imported bitumen for tarring roads would certainly not well develop the road construction in Madagascar. On 1962 (when Madagascar became independent country)the streets of Bemolanga village and all the streets in Morafenobe, the main town situated in Western part of Madagascar, located at 30 km away from Bemolanga deposit were tarred with Bemolanga bituminous tar sands by the “Societé des Pétroles de Madagascar). The tar sands were dropped into a metal barrel and then, heated up with wood fire while mixing from time to time to produce viscous liquid, which is poured on the top of the prepared road and compacted manually afterwards. These tarred streets lasted more than twenty years life, thus, on 1980, almost of the tarred streets stay unbroken. In many countries who own tar sands, bituminous shale, natural bitumen and heavy oil, such materials were used in road construction to tar their roads since longtime ago. Thus our study consists in evaluating the possibility to use the Bemolanga tar sands to tar the maximum length of roads in Madagascar. The conclusion of the study is that it is technically possible to tar Madagascar roads with the Bemolanga tar sands. The decision to go further to the project would just be political decision.
Author Keywords: Madagascar, tarred roads, sand, Bemolanga mining.
Volume 24, Issue 2, June 2016, Pages 397–406
Simon Rakotoarison1, Eddy H. Rasolomanana2, Baholy Robijaona3, and Koto-te-Nyiwa Ngbolua4
1 Ecole Supérieure Polytechnique d’Antananarivo, Madagascar
2 Ecole Supérieure Polytechnique d’Antananarivo, Madagascar
3 Ecole Supérieure Polytechnique d’Antananarivo, Madagascar
4 Département de Biologie, Faculté des Sciences, Université de Kinshasa, BP 190 Kinshasa XI, RD Congo
Original language: French
Copyright © 2016 ISSR Journals. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Abstract
The price of the crude is continuing to scaling down, but one wonders what would be the consequence of that crude price drop off on the bitumen produced at the refineries. Madagascar would have a solution to use either the Bemolanga tar sands naturally (as it is) or to use extracted bitumen to replace the imported bitumen for tarring its roads. In fact, Madagascar is importing bitumen since 1960 and needsmuch foreign currency to pay out the bitumen product bills; nevertheless it has the possibility to use these petroleum materials to tar its roads. Using only imported bitumen for tarring roads would certainly not well develop the road construction in Madagascar. On 1962 (when Madagascar became independent country)the streets of Bemolanga village and all the streets in Morafenobe, the main town situated in Western part of Madagascar, located at 30 km away from Bemolanga deposit were tarred with Bemolanga bituminous tar sands by the “Societé des Pétroles de Madagascar). The tar sands were dropped into a metal barrel and then, heated up with wood fire while mixing from time to time to produce viscous liquid, which is poured on the top of the prepared road and compacted manually afterwards. These tarred streets lasted more than twenty years life, thus, on 1980, almost of the tarred streets stay unbroken. In many countries who own tar sands, bituminous shale, natural bitumen and heavy oil, such materials were used in road construction to tar their roads since longtime ago. Thus our study consists in evaluating the possibility to use the Bemolanga tar sands to tar the maximum length of roads in Madagascar. The conclusion of the study is that it is technically possible to tar Madagascar roads with the Bemolanga tar sands. The decision to go further to the project would just be political decision.
Author Keywords: Madagascar, tarred roads, sand, Bemolanga mining.
Abstract: (french)
Actuellement, alors que le prix du brut pétrolier accuse une chute importante, on se demande quel est le niveau de prix du bitume routier produit au niveau des raffineries. Madagascar aurait une solution de remplacement du bitume routier importé par le bitume extrait des grès bitumineux, soit par l’utilisation des grès bitumineux tels quels. En effet, Madagascar importait une quantité importante de bitume pour revêtir ses routes depuis 1960. Ceci aurait et continuerait à grever ses réserves en devises alors qu’elle a la possibilité de produire les matières citées plus haut pour les utiliser en revêtement routier. N’utiliser que du bitume importé freine certainement le développement des réseaux des Routes Nationales bitumées. En 1962 (après l’indépendance de Madagascar), les rues de la ville de Morafenobe, ville située à l’Ouest de Madagascar, localisée à 30 km du gisement des grès bitumineux de Bemolanga, ont été « goudronnées » avec le grès bitumineux de Bemolanga par la Société de Pétroles de Madagascar. Un système de goudronnage qui a duré plus de vingt ans. Dans beaucoup de pays qui possèdent des grès ou schistes bitumineux ou des huiles lourdes naturelles, les routes sont revêtues de ces matières qui sont utilisées comme liants hydrocarbonés dans la technique routière. Notre étude consiste en l’évaluation de la possibilité d’utiliser les grès bitumineux de Bemolanga pour le revêtement des routes en terre de Madagascar. Une décision plutôt politique que technique engagera le pays dans l’utilisation de cette matière qui existe en quantité importante dans ce gisement connu depuis longtemps. Nos résultats indiquent que l’utilisation des grès bitumineux de Bemolanga en tant que revêtement routier est techniquement faisable. Ainsi, la décision de faire « bitumer » les routes en terre de Madagascar par les grès bitumineux de Bemolanga n’est plutôt que politique.
Author Keywords: Madagascar, revêtement routier, grès, Mine de Bemolanga.
How to Cite this Article
Simon Rakotoarison, Eddy H. Rasolomanana, Baholy Robijaona, and Koto-te-Nyiwa Ngbolua, “Bemolanga tar sand: A local raw material for tarring roads in Madagascar,” International Journal of Innovation and Scientific Research, vol. 24, no. 2, pp. 397–406, June 2016.
