Studies on Nigerian Crudes IV. Improvement of Asphaltic Properties of Residual Asphalts

Abstract

Residual asphalts obtained from 25 samples of Nigerian light, medium, and heavy crude oils were chemically treated by airoxidation and sulfurization to improve their characteristic properties. The asphalt yield for light crudes varied from 27.7-33.7 wt% and 33.4-67.5 wt% for medium crudes. The chemical treatment brought about changes in chemical composition, increase in molecular mass and modification of consistency resulting in highly improved asphaltic properties. There were manifold increases in viscosity and softening points, which came as a result of the higher asphaltene content of the treated materials. The asphalts obtained meet quality

Influence of Chemical Composition on the Physical Characteristics of Paving Asphalts

“…Residual asphalts obtained from 25 samples of Nigerian light, medium, and heavy crude oils were chemically treated by air-oxidation and sulfurization (Oyekunle and Onyehanere, 1990, 1991a, 1991bOyekunle and Adesanya, 2000;Oyekunle and Onwa, 2000;Oyekunle et al, 2004). The chemical treatment brought about changes in chemical composition, manifold increases in asphaltene content, and more than a 20% rise in softening point.…”

Certain Relationships between Chemical Composition and Properties of Petroleum Asphalts from Different Origin

“…Oyekunle and others [5, [46][47][48][49][50][51][52][53][54][55][56][57][58][59] have carried out various studies on the physical characteristics and chemical composition of asphalts. Investigation of the residual asphalts produced from twenty-three Nigerian crude oil samples revealed that these asphalts have low asphaltene contents (1.52 -6.0 wt.%) with softening points varying between 25-66.5°C (R & B) and penetration values of 26-300 (0.1 mm) and above at 25°C [46,48,58].…”