Petroleum bitumen
How do they obtain Petroleum bitumen?
petroleum bitumen is mainly from crude oil and normally called “Bitumen” or “Asphalt”.
They store crude oil in tanks at a temperature of 60° C. In the following step, they pump it from these tanks by a heat exchanger system.
The process of obtaining petroleum bitumen starts after this process when the oil heats in a furnace at a temperature of 300
degrees and converts to steam in an atmospheric distillation pipe.
For obtaining petroleum bitumen during this process, physical separation takes place in such a way that the heavier
components settle, and the lighter components rise before passing through
the second heat exchanger before being filtered in the vacuum distillation column.
They produce this substance either directly from crude oil or indirectly by performing some processes
such as air blowing. In other words, petroleum bitumen is the remnant of a distillation tower.
This material in crude oil varies from zero to 50 percent.
Also, they can obtain them from different sources that have different properties.
The higher the quality of crude oil, the better the quality of the petroleum obtained from it.
The degree of bitumen depends on the amount of volatile material
that remains, the lower the amount of petroleum bitumen, the harder it is obtained.
In fact, it is a material that is very difficult to extract and most of this process requires physical mining instead of pumping.
People who are known as bitumen experts
do not consider petroleum to be just a product
of oil refining and they consider it as a material with a complex and advanced structure.
Petroleum has a high application in construction such as paving and roofing materials.
The end use of petroleum specifies the ultimate components
which are formed whether through blending or the process of refining.
The global use of petroleum bitumen
is nearly around 102 million tons per year. 85% of the produced bitumen
is proper for a binder of asphalt
applied to roads, airports, and car parks.
Beside all these applications,
minor uses of petroleum should not be neglected.
Uses such as soundproofing, a binder of briquettes, and soil stabilizer.
In short, this substance has lots of applications in construction projects in the world.
Many countries tend to import and apply this material for their buildings,
road paving, and repairs. Countries such as Kenya, Tanzania,
and India are the main importers of this material.