What is the production process for diluted asphalt?

Diluted asphalt is a solid or semi-solid asphalt that is made more fluid and easy to use by adding solvents or additives. The following is the general production process for diluted asphalt:

Feedstock Preparation: Prepare the desired crude oil, natural gas, or other hydrocarbon compound as a solvent.

Cracking: Crude oil or other hydrocarbon compounds are cracked into lighter hydrocarbon compounds, such as alkanes and olefins, by thermal or catalytic cracking.

Hydrotreating: the cracking products are hydrotreated to remove impurities such as sulfides and nitrides from them and to improve their stability.

Solvent extraction: the hydrotreated product is separated from the asphalt by solvent extraction.

Dilution: solvent is added to the separated bitumen to dilute it to the desired concentration.

Mixing: The diluted bitumen is mixed with other additives, such as antioxidants, viscosity enhancers, etc.

Storage: the produced diluted asphalt is stored in appropriate containers for subsequent use.

It should be noted that the production process of diluted bitumen varies from plant to plant and the above process is only a general description.