A technical reference for procurement engineers, DOT specs reviewers, and sustainability officers — what the chemistry does, how it's been tested, and how to verify the claims against your specification.
Asphalt pavement is a composite: aggregate (the rock) bound together by bitumen (the black stuff). Bitumen itself is a colloidal system: heavy fractions called asphaltenes dispersed through light, oily fractions — the saturates, aromatics, and resins. The light fractions carry the binder's flexibility; the asphaltenes carry its load-bearing structure.
Three forces strip those light fractions out over time: UV exposure breaks the lighter molecular chains; oxygen reacts with the oils and converts them to harder, less soluble compounds; and traffic heat accelerates both reactions while volatilizing the lightest fractions out of the binder entirely. The result is a binder that's gotten stiffer and more brittle without anything structural changing about the aggregate or the section.
That stiffer binder is what you see on the surface as graying, loss of flexibility, surface micro-cracking, then macro-cracking under load. The conventional response — mill and overlay — tears out the entire wearing course to deal with what is, fundamentally, a binder-chemistry problem. The rejuvenation strategy is to fix the chemistry directly: treat the aged binder where it sits, restore the flexibility oxidation took out of it, and let the existing pavement do its job again.
A rejuvenator is, mechanistically, a treatment for the binder itself rather than for the surface above it. Sprayed onto an oxidized surface, the carrier penetrates the binder matrix from three-eighths of an inch to a half inch in minutes. Once inside, the rejuvenator interacts directly with the oxidized binder — reducing stiffness and improving the rheological properties that govern cracking resistance. The binder's effective viscosity drops back toward its original spec; ductility, the property that lets pavement flex under traffic load without cracking, comes back with it.
The chemistry is specific. A coating like sealcoat sits on top of the surface — it can hide a problem but it cannot reverse the binder aging that caused the problem. A rejuvenator works the opposite way: it penetrates, diffuses, and reacts. There is nothing left on the surface to peel, flake, or re-emulsify in rain. The "treatment" is no longer a layer; it has become part of the binder again.
In the case of the bio-based pair we apply — Revolution BLACK™ and Delta Mist® — the active chemistry is plant-derived rather than petroleum-derived, and the feedstock is renewable. Both are formulated to do that work on weathered asphalt. Per Collaborative Aggregates, Delta Mist® adds a biodegradable carrier and a low VOC profile; both formulations cure fast enough that crews are back on the lot in 90 minutes after application.
Different rejuvenators in our line-up have different validation histories. For procurement and spec reviewers, here's the short version: Revolution BLACK™'s claims come from C-14 bio-carbon verification; Delta Mist®'s come from the chemistry partnership and the NCAT Test Track; CPR™'s come from the FAA. Pick the one that maps to your spec.
Bio-carbon verification
Revolution BLACK™, from Greene Technologies Corporation, is marketed as a 100% black plant-based rejuvenator. The laboratory figure behind the claim: 98.95% bio-carbon, verified by carbon-14 analysis — the standard method for distinguishing plant-derived carbon from fossil carbon. A penetrating rejuvenator that cures to a true black finish.
Bio chemistry partnership
Delta Mist® was developed by its manufacturer, Collaborative Aggregates, with the lab founded by the originator of the 12 Principles of Green Chemistry. Every feedstock, solvent, and reaction pathway was scored against those principles before commercial release.
FAA testing
CPR™ (Conditioning Pavement Rejuvenator), from Hydro-Labs, Inc., is the traffic-grade coal-tar rejuvenator in our line-up — we switched to it from WD-2000, the product in the same RT-12 coal-tar class that we distributed and applied for years. That rejuvenator class carries over 56 years of FAA testing history on airfield surfaces, runway shoulders, and ramps, and it has been the default rejuvenator specification on aviation contracts that call for the treatment class.
Environmental profile
Per their manufacturers, both bio-based rejuvenators — Revolution BLACK™ and Delta Mist® — contain no coal tar, no PAH (polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon) compounds, and no petroleum solvent. Collaborative Aggregates adds that Delta Mist® carries a biodegradable carrier, runoff that is non-toxic to vegetation at the lot edge, and a low VOC profile. Both cure fast enough that crews return to the lot in 90 minutes — unusual for penetrating rejuvenators.
Founded by TriTechnologies founder Jeff Pokorny, the Green Pavement Preservation Network™ is a network of distributors and applicators built around this chemistry — developed, crew by crew, against a shared standard of best practices.
The chemistry behind the Network spans three product families from three makers: the traffic-grade coal-tar rejuvenator class — Lone Star Specialties' WD-2000 through our distributor years, Hydro-Labs' CPR™ today — Collaborative Aggregates' Delta Mist®, developed with the Warner Babcock Institute, and Revolution BLACK™, the black-curing plant-based flagship from Greene Technologies Corporation. Our crews train against the Network's protocols — calibrated application rates, surface-prep and weather windows, tack tests before re-opening — and what we learn on the lot goes back up the lineage.
For owners and specifiers, the practical implication is that the chemistry, the application protocols, and the field-data feedback loop all flow through one lineage — not three disconnected vendors trying to make their numbers look the biggest. For contractors and suppliers, the Network is how that discipline spreads — and joining it starts with a conversation.
The list below is the canonical set of documents we provide on request during the assessment. Specific report numbers and attestations are being finalized for direct citation here — your procurement team can request them by email.
Federal Aviation Administration specification for airport pavement rejuvenators; CPR™ meets P-632, per its manufacturer Hydro-Labs — as did WD-2000, the coal-tar rejuvenator we applied before switching to CPR™. See FAA Advisory Circular 150/5370-10H.
UFGS 02787 — Unified Facilities Guide Specification for Bituminous Pavement Rejuvenation
Federal guide specification used on Department of Defense and federal-facility projects for bituminous-pavement rejuvenation — the spec under which this treatment class is written into DoD-funded work.
Delta Mist® was developed by its manufacturer, Collaborative Aggregates, with the lab founded by the originator of the 12 Principles of Green Chemistry, Dr. John Warner.
Manufacturer documentation for Revolution BLACK™, the 100% black plant-based rejuvenator — including the 98.95% bio-carbon figure verified by carbon-14 analysis. Full data sheets available on request during the assessment.
Manufacturer product data for CPR™, the traffic-grade coal-tar rejuvenator we apply on FAA-spec and heavy-axle work — RT-12 coal-tar base, ASTM materials properties, an 8-to-24-hour full-rate cure window, and compliance with FAA and Army Corps rejuvenator standards. Data sheets available on request during the assessment.
Peer-recognized Asphalt Institute paper on the chemistry and field performance of penetrating asphalt rejuvenators. Establishes the test-and-performance criteria used in federal and public-works specifications.
Air Force AFCEC-TR-76-3 — four-year, three-base rejuvenator field study
Air Force Civil Engineering Center, 1976. Three-climate field study of rejuvenator products at U.S. Air Force bases — the data set the FAA continues to rely on for airfield rejuvenator performance.
DOT/FAA technical report documenting the cracking and PAH issues associated with coal-tar seal coats. Background for the shift toward penetrating and bio-based rejuvenators.
After six years and 20 million ESALs on NCAT's accelerated test track, Delta Mist® emerged as a top-performing product in its class — treated sections held an average 40% reduction in the Glover-Rowe cracking-susceptibility index versus the untreated control from two years post-application through the end of the study. See Collaborative Aggregates' NCAT results summary.
Specs, data sheets, and a straight answer on whether your pavement is a rejuvenation candidate. Free site walk, one-sheet report, honest recommendation.
