The Exporters Group

Global Use of Bitumen

The vast majority of refined bitumen is used in construction: primarily as a constituent of products used in paving and roofing applications. According to the requirements of the end use, bitumen is produced to specification. This is achieved either by refining or blending. It is estimated that the current world use of bitumen is approximately 102 million tonnes per year. Approximately 85% of all the bitumen produced is used as the binder in asphalt concrete for roads. It is also used in airports car parks and footways.

Typically, the production of asphalt concrete involves mixing fine and coarse aggregates such as sand, gravel and crushed rock with asphalt, which acts as the binding agent. Other materials, such as recycled polymers (e.g., rubber tires), may be added to the bitumen to modify its properties according to the application for which the bitumen is ultimately intended.

A further 10% of global bitumen production is used in roofing applications, where its waterproofing qualities are invaluable. The remaining 5% of bitumen is used mainly for sealing and insulating

purposes in a variety of building materials, such as pipe coatings, carpet tile backing and

paint. Bitumen is applied in the construction and maintenance of many structures,

systems, and components

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Penetration Grade Bitumen

Road construction Bitumen is usually classified according to its penetration. The penetration rate of Bitumen material represents its strength and hardness, which is defined as the number of penetration unit (one tenth millimeter) of one vertical standard needle in one Bitumen sample, in certain time and weight on the needle and temperature. The penetration rate of Bitumen is usually measured 25 degree centigrade with 100-gram weight and in 5 seconds.

The numbers represent the range of Bitumen penetration rate. The main goal for grading bitumen

based on penetration is to determine their suitability for use in various construction methods and

under different climatic conditions.

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VISCOSITY GRADE BITUMEN

Viscosity Grade Bitumen is a Paving Grade Bitumen essential for road construction and for the production of asphalt pavements with superior properties. Bitumen are also graded and specified by their viscosity at a standard temperature (typically 60°C). Viscosity test on bitumen results the classification of bitumen in a range of grades. The higher the number, the harder the bitumen in the viscosity grading system. Generally, each of this viscosity grades bitumen has different application according to the two important factors such as climate and traffic conditions. The important use of VG bitumen is due to the existence of two important properties of this material, which are water impermeability and high adhesion

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CUTBACK BITUMEN

The industry is sometimes in need of low viscosity bitumen. Therefore, manufacturers came to a solution to deliver cutback bitumen which is a low viscosity liquid dissolved in a solvent.

Bitumen is ‘cutback’ by adding controlled amounts of petroleum distillates such as kerosene, naphtha, diesel oil, and furnace oil to perform as a solvent. Although these adhesive materials are added to lessen the need for heating before using, they will evaporate as the bitumen is applied.

This process is done to reduce the viscosity of the bitumen temporarily so it can penetrate pavements more effectively or to allow spraying at temperatures that are too cold for successful sprayed sealing with neat bitumen. Grades of the “Cutback Bitumen” are: (MC30 - MC70 - MC250 - MC3000)

The main advantage of this type of bitumen is that there is no need to heat it before using. Cutback bitumen is more appropriate for cold regions than the others. Primer sealing and sprayed sealing are some items for which cutback bitumen is suitable.

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Bitumen Emulsions

Bitumen Emulsions are colloidal mixtures of bitumen and water. Due to the different surface tensions of the two liquids, stable emulsions cannot be created simply by mixing. Therefore, various emulsifiers and stabilizers are added. Emulsifiers are amphiphilic molecules that differ in the charge of their polar head group. They reduce the surface tension of the emulsion and thus prevent bitumen particles from fusing.

The emulsifier charge defines the type of emulsion: anionic (negatively charged) and cationic (positively charged). The concentration of an emulsifier is a critical parameter affecting the size of the bitumen particles - higher concentrations lead to smaller bitumen particles. Thus, emulsifiers have a great impact on the stability, viscosity, breaking strength, and adhesion of the bitumen emulsion.

The size of bitumen particles is usually between 0.1 and 50 µm with a main fraction between 1 µm and 10 µm. Laser diffraction techniques can be used to determine the particle size distribution quickly and easily. Cationic emulsifiers primarily include long-chain amines such as imidazolines, amido-amines, and diamines, which acquire a positive charge when an acid is added.

Anionic emulsifiers are often fatty acids extracted from lignin, tall oil, or tree resin saponified with

bases such as NaOH, which creates a negative charge.

Bitumen Emulsions' Production

The production process of bitumen emulsions is very complex.

Two methods are commonly used, "Colloid mill" method & "High Internal Phase Ratio (HIPR)" method.

In the "Colloid mill" method, a rotor moves at high speed within a stator by adding bitumen and a water-emulsifier mixture. The resulting shear forces generate bitumen particles between 5 µm and 10 µm coated with emulsifiers.

The "High Internal Phase Ratio (HIPR)" method is used for creating smaller bitumen particles, monomodal, narrow particle size distributions, and very high bitumen concentrations. Here, a highly concentrated bitumen emulsion is produced first by moderate stirring and diluted afterward.

In contrast to the "Colloid-Mill" method, the aqueous phase is introduced into hot bitumen,

enabling very high bitumen concentrations.

Bitumen Emulsions' Applications

Bitumen emulsions are used in a wide variety of applications.

They are used in road construction and building protection and primarily include the application

in cold recycling mixtures, adhesive coating, and surface treatment. Due to the lower viscosity in comparison to hot bitumen, processing requires less energy and is associated with significantly

less risk of fire and burns.

Chipseal involves spraying the road surface with bitumen emulsion followed by a layer of crushed rock, gravel or crushed slag. Slurry seal is a mixture of bitumen emulsion and fine crushed aggregate that is spread on the surface of a road.

Cold-mixed asphalt can also be made from bitumen emulsion to create pavements similar to hot-mixed asphalt, several inches in depth, and bitumen emulsions are also blended into recycled hot-mix asphalt

to create low-cost pavements.

Bitumen emulsion based techniques are known to be useful for all classes of roads, their use may also

be possible in the following applications:

1. Asphalts for heavily trafficked roads (based on the use of polymer modified emulsions)

2. Warm emulsion based mixtures, to improve both their maturation time and mechanical properties

3. Half-warm technology, in which aggregates are heated up to 100 degrees, producing mixtures with similar properties to those of hot asphalts 4. High performance surface dressing.

A comparison [Bitumen, Cutback, and Emulsion]

Bitumen should have been heated before application, to lower its viscosity rate.

Cutback bitumen offers some advantages over other types of bitumen.

After the production of this low viscosity bitumen, the heating operation was put aside. Because the volatile solvents in cutback bitumen met the need for heating by alleviating its viscosity.

The only concern was the harm that cutback bitumen had, to the environment. The volatile solvents were noxious to nature, human and environment.

Then the Emulsifiers and Bitumen Emulsion came to the industry.

Not only were they considered as in-noxious and safe materials since only water evaporated,

but also they were energy efficient.

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Oxidized Bitumen (Blown Asphalt)

This type of bitumen obtains from the blowing hot air with the temperature of 200 to 300 degree Celsius to the penetration grade bitumen in the reactor of BBU of the refinery. Hydrogen atoms of bitumen react with oxygen atoms of air when heated with hot air in the reactor. Then it generates some steam that should be removed from the oxidation chamber. Consequently, the bitumen remains.

Due to low thermal sensitivity, the softening point of Oxidized Bitumen is much higher than regular bitumen and the penetration index (PI) is higher than road construction bitumen (8>PI>2).

The softening point value measured by the Ring and Ball method as determined by ASTM D36.

In addition, the penetration value is in 1/10 mm as determined by IP49 or ASTM- D5.

Oxidized Bitumen Grades

This type of bitumen has many grades;

Low oxidized bitumen grades are R75/25, R75/30, R85/25, R85/40, R95/25, R90/40.

Medium grades are R90/10, R90/15.

Hard oxidized bitumen including R115/15, R110/15, R105/5, R105/15, R105/35 and R150/5.

What is the meaning of these numbers?

The asphaltene in this bitumen is polymerized due to blowing air and makes this bitumen rubbery.

Based on this rubber property, this bitumen is called Rubberized Bitumen and the letter R shows this.

These numbers show the softening point and penetration grade.

For example, R75/25 tells that the softening point is 75 and the penetration grade of this bitumen is 25.

Among these bitumen, the most widely used oxidized or blown bitumen in the market

is R85/25, that its softening point is 85 and its penetration grade is 25.

Oxidized bitumen 85/40 is popular in European countries like Denmark, Norway, Finland and Sweden.

Oxidized Bitumen's Applications

Hard bitumen under controlled temperature conditions is widely used as an anti-slip layer compound

in the piling industry, for the manufacture of roofing felts, the roofing and waterproofing industries,

for sound dampening felts and undercarriage sealant in the automotive industry, electric cable joint protection, joint filling compound, sealant compound, and many others. Also used in sealing saw cuts

and joints where expected movements are minimum. It is also used in the manufacturing of bituminous marine mastic for the oil & gas pipeline joints.

BULK PACKING

The bitumen can be transported in bulk by “Bitumen Tanker”, which can hold approximately 24 MT.

It also can be transported using “Bulk Vessels”, which are well equipped with all required facilities

that have the capacity of carrying between 800 MT to 5000 MT of bitumen.

Or we can use “Flexitank”, which is a bladder or bag that can be fit into a standard ISO container and used for the transport and/or storage of a non-regulated liquid inside a cargo transport unit (container).

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JUMBO BAGS PACKING

Jumbo bag is a large flexible multi-layer bag which is called bitu-plast, bitu-bag, polybag and poly cube.

This type of poly-alkene bags with high quality and resistance is one of the best types of

bitumen packaging. The reasonable price and its ease of use have made it too popular in industries.

It can be filled up to 1 MT of bitumen. Recently bitumen exporters use jumbo bag instead of steel drums.

Unlike drums, jumbo bag reduces bitumen waste by about 3 to 4 %. It is necessary to heat the bitumen when discharging the drum, but in jumbo bag, it is enough to tear the outer layer of bitumen jumbo bag and throw the bitumen jumbo bag in the molten furnace with the inner layer.

Poly bag is also an environmental packaging method for various grades of bitumen that provides

for end users more transportable use of product. Specification of two layers epithelial films from polyethylene, which improve the quality of bitumen packed.

Polybag was designed to operate under any weather conditions. The bagged bitumen is placed next to the melting unit and the bag is raised by the crane that is an integral part of the unit. After the outer bag has been removed, the bitumen is then easily melted over the heated burners. The melted product is collected in a storage tank, where it is ready to be used.

This melting equipment is especially prepared to guarantee a high heat transfer area, taking into consideration the physical and chemical properties of the product. It therefore minimizes associated energy costs and guarantees the consistency of the product. Polybag offers numerous environmental, safety and stock management advantages. Its structure ensures the simultaneous transport of large quantities of bitumen and its long-term storage capability drastically reduces energy costs.

Bitumen In New-Steel Drums

Drums are the common packaging of bitumen due to its safety and consistent quality. It varies dependent on bitumen volume, height, thickness and lid. The most widely used type of drums is long

new steel drum that is chosen by more than 80% of our customers. Our Company has its own steel

drum manufacturing factory, which has a capacity of 5000 drum/day. These drums are made of

cold-rolled steel and are black coated immediately in order to prevent corrosion and rust.

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Bitumen Packaging Comparison!

Altogether, bulk bitumen has the cheapest packing among all the bitumen packing because

it is unpacked but its transportation and storage at the destination may be more expensive

When we compare the cost of bitumen packing,

The cost of bulk bitumen can be very high depending on the kind of transportation used because;

* It has a high operating cost and it is expensive to maintain at the destination

* It needs a special type of tanker, vessel or truck to carry & transfer it from its origin to destination

"Jumbo Bags" and "New Steel Drums" are more “Cost-Effective”, because ordinary trucks

can deliver the cargo, and its storing is much cheaper than Bulk bitumen since any standard

storage can be suitable for it. However, Steel Drums can be more expensive compared

to Jumbo Bags, because steel is more expensive than plastic.

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