Natural bitumen suppliers
The Old Material IN A New Mindset
Road construction is not done after you pave the highway! It is the beginning of the maintenance. However, asphalt preservation is a delicate and consistent job. To maximize the life of the pavement, we need a dynamic strategy. The strategy declares whether the pavement will have a longer life or it is just ruining the whole road. Therefore, natural bitumen suppliers In addition to consistency, pavement maintenance is an expensive procedure. Traditionally, parking lots, highways, and roads require patching up. In a more cost-effective strategy, we may take care of the pavement to avoid fast deterioration.
A couple of years ago, Iowa State University decided to implement a project for evaluating the maintenance quality of a stadium pavement. The university worked with a couple of major asphalt companies. Experts wanted to discover a maintenance plan. accordingly, they started to fill the cracks of the pavement with natural bitumen for a five-year-period. But why did Iowa State University select natural bitumen to seal the cracks?
Natural bitumen specifications
Surprisingly, not all the globally consumed bitumen is refined. The Earth has made natural bitumen many years ago. Major natural resources exist in Alabama, California, Kentucky, and New Mexico. Not just in The United States, but other countries such as Canada are major natural bitumen suppliers globally.
Natural bitumen, aka Gilsonite, is a safe and non-toxic material. It is a resin rock made from a combination of multiple hydrocarbons. This distinctive natural compound is rich in nitrogen and beta-carotene. It contains impurities such as silicate, calcareous, gypsum and clay, but the pure substance is bitumen and less than 5% the ash. Therefore, it is predominantly a carbon material. In addition to a vast application in various industries, it is an efficient, versatile, and cost-effective additive.
Gilsonite has significant health benefits compared to synthetic products. It is:
- Non-toxic (unlike coal and fly ash)
- Non-carcinogenic
- Non-mutagenic
Moreover, it does not require any strict safety precautions while working. It is also compliant with the Mexican EPA standard for drilling operations in deep water.
Approximately, Natural bitumen appears as smooth and vertical veins in rocks of 100 km length and 50 km width. It is formed by a geological phenomenon millions of years ago where a similar oil liquid erupted to the surface to cover large cracks on the Earth’s surface. The material hardened contacting the air and the resin material formed.
Gilsonite is manually extracted in underground shafts using pneumatic hammers. Experts classify Gilsonite by its temperature, then they dry and measure it according to customer specifications. All the natural bitumen should pass the quality control measures before the export procedure.
Natural vs Refined
The major natural deposit of bitumen is estimated at 10 million tons. It is in the Pitch Lake of La Brea in the southwest of Trinidad. The global consumption of bitumen is much more than the existing deposits, therefore, the world required a new strategy to meet the demand. We needed a synthetic product resembling natural bitumen. The scientists could finally derive bitumen in the distillation tower from the crude oil.
The residue at the vacuum bottom in the column represents the feedstock for the manufacture of bitumen. The viscosity of the residue depends on the quality of the crude oil, the temperature, the temperature and the pressure in the vacuum column.
Both natural and synthetic bitumen include different qualities and grading. The refined bitumen suppliers declare the specifications in the laboratory inspection. As same as the natural bitumen suppliers, they should announce the grade and specifications to their customers. Each grade is suitable for different environments.
Natural bitumen applications
Natural bitumen suppliers in The United States and Canada extract the bitumen through cracking the ore. They produce various products with the raw bitumen, including gasoline, diesel, computer printer powder, graphite and charcoal electrodes, adhesives and chemical industries, paints, rubber. It replaces the soot and black carbon as well.
natural bitumen suppliers
This natural black material slows down the oxidation of the pavement. If the oxidation occurs tardier, the pavement will have a longer life. Therefore, it is possible to extend the lifecycle of the pavement by applying natural bitumen as the base and the prep. However, Gilsonite is not a magical material, it just cracks and exacerbates slower. These are the steps which natural bitumen suppliers and Iowa State University planned to make asphalt life longer:
- They melted Gilsonite and made a resin. The resin has a preservation effect and is a strong binder and modifier for the pavement.
- Then the resin was applied to the pavement and it sealed the cracks. The procedure happened early in the life of the asphalt. They repeated the applications to prevent oxidation.
- Gilsonite does not have to undergo any refining, unlike synthetic bitumen which is the result of crude oil distillation. Natural bitumen emissions are not toxic or carcinogenic comparing to the artificial bitumen.
- The secret of keeping the pavement in a better condition is not just using Gilsonite to seal it, but the treatment cycle. It is better to take periods of four to seven years.
Natural bitumen suppliers in Asia and U.S frequently provide material for blocking gas and oil wells, pavement sealer additive and paint powder manufacturing. If you need more information about natural bitumen, please contact us.