A presentation of a new method for improving the characteristics of road bitumen produced from oil with a high paraffin content was held at the Turkmenbashi Complex of Oil Refineries (TCOR), the online newspaper of the Oil and Gas Complex of Turkmenistan reported on Thursday.
According to the report, the innovation developed by specialists of the Institute of Chemistry of the Academy of Sciences of Turkmenistan was included in the concept for the development of the TCOR for the coming years.
The relevance of the development of Turkmen scientists is due to the increasing requirements for the operational characteristics of asphalt concrete coatings of highways as a result of the increase in traffic flows.
The Institute’s specialists have developed a technology for producing road bitumen by distillation of tar in an inert gas environment. In an experiment conducted in a laboratory setup, residual bitumen was obtained that meets high standards for basic characteristics, including viscosity, susceptibility to temperature changes, brittleness and elasticity.
In addition, by-products such as paraffins and oils are released after the distillation. They can be used as raw materials for the production of other oil products.
