Exxonmobil Research and Engineering Company

Pavel Kriz

John Brownie

Lyle Edwin Moran

Mary Josephine Gale

Katherine Lynn Sokol

Daniel Grant

Mary J Gale

Methods are provided for making asphalt mix composition from mixtures of binder, aggregate, and tailings derived from a solvent froth treatment performed to recover bitumen from mined oil sands. The tailings derived from the solvent froth treatment can be used to replace at least a portion of the small particles in the aggregate used for forming the asphalt mix composition.

Asphalt composition including fine particles from bitumen recovery

Methods are provided for predicting the properties of an asphalt fraction that contains two or more asphalt components based on measurements of the viscosity for the asphalt fraction. Based on the measured viscosity, a virtual cut point is determined for a virtual asphalt blend that has the same viscosity (to within a tolerance value) as the measured viscosity for the asphalt fraction. The virtual cut point is then used to determine a variety of predicted property values for the asphalt fraction. Optionally, the predicted property values can be used to adjust the actual cut point for the distillation or separation process used for forming the asphalt fraction.

Property prediction for asphalts from blended sources

Methods are provided for upgrading the quality of an asphalt containing wax. This can include base asphalts that naturally contain elevated levels of wax, such as base asphalts with a wax content of at least 3.0 wt %. Additionally or alternately, this can include a base asphalt containing subsequently added wax. Wax generated at a refinery can be added to an asphalt along with a pour point depressant to form an asphalt product. The additional wax can reduce the viscosity of the asphalt product at higher temperatures so that the asphalt product can be mixed and stored at a tower temperature. Additionally, the pour point depressant can unexpectedly improve the low temperature properties of the wax-containing asphalt product.

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Sarnia, Canada

Pavel Kriz