Honda Motor Co., Ltd. announced the establishment of PathAhead Co., Ltd. (PathAhead), a startup business venture originated from IGNITION, the automaker's new business creation program.
PathAhead has developed Rising Sand, an artificial aggregate made from desert sand. Going forward, the company will work to establish mass-production technology and conduct demonstration testing to verify its workability and durability in asphalt road construction.
After these steps, the company aims to begin mass production of Rising Sand at its own production plant, scheduled to be built in Republic of Kenya in 2028, and establish a system and capability to ensure stable supply to construction companies in Africa.
In recent years, African countries have seen a rapid expansion of their economies in line with rapid population growth. At the same time, insufficient construction and maintenance of infrastructure such as roads has been a major constraint on economic growth. Currently, the percentage of paved roads in the African region remains low, at approximately 20%, and the deterioration of existing paved roads is progressing, which is resulting in higher logistics costs and economic losses.
Furthermore, aggregates used for road paving are made of relatively inexpensive natural resources such as sand and crushed stone, which tend to have variability in strength depending on where they were mined and the geological layers, making it difficult to secure consistent level of quality required for paving materials.
PathAhead recognized the potential of desert sand as a locally available resource and developed an artificial aggregate, Rising Sand, that achieves both high cost efficiency and durability. Rising Sand is produced using PathAhead’s original technology to granulate fine, non-uniform desert sand grains into more uniform, high-hardness artificial aggregate, which is suitable for a wide range of applications, including road paving, concrete and materials for the base course/sub-base of roads.
As the first step toward commercialization, PathAhead will conduct demonstration testing of Rising Sand for road paving applications over a period of approximately three years, first in Kenya starting in 2027, then in Tanzania, followed by South Africa.
The company will verify workability, durability and the consistency of quality while considering local climate and traffic conditions in each country, aiming to establish specifications that satisfy the requirements for road pavement materials for mass production.
Honda Motor Co., Ltd.
Rising Sand Features
Rising Sand is an artificial aggregate produced by granulating the round grains of fine desert sand with a diameter of approximately 100 micrometers (μm) into larger granulated sand clusters with a diameter of several ten millimeters (mm), using PathAhead’s original, patent-pending granulation technology. This technology reduces variations in the size and shape of sand clusters, thereby increasing its strength as aggregate.
While roads constructed with conventional natural aggregates typically have a service life of about 10 years, roads constructed with the Rising Sand are expected to achieve a service life of more than 20 years, which will reduce the frequency of road repairs and is estimated to reduced lifecycle cost by approximately 60% compared to that of conventional roads using natural aggregates.
