Bitumen is a black and paste-like substance used in insulating moisture and making asphalt. Gilsonite is a natural mineral bitumen that is found in underground mines as a black and hard substance with a shiny surface. Bitumen is obtained from oil and is a dense and viscous hydrocarbon.
There are two types of bitumen, one is natural bitumen which is found under hills and oil lakes, and the second is refined bitumen which is formed from the sedimentation of crude oil.
Bitumen is produced in two ways: direct application and air blowing based on a continuous process.
Bitumen has many properties, including the ability of bitumen to harden due to heat, it will harden to loose and watery, and it will harden again when the temperature drops. Bitumen has a sticky state.
It is resistant to pressure and tension. The next point is that bitumen has a high resistance to cold and heat, and finally bitumen is widely used in road construction and road asphalt.
Gilsonite mineral bitumen
For the first time in 1860, mineral bitumen or gilsonite was found from natural bitumen mines, and a person named Samuel H. Gilson used it in 1880 as a waterproof coating material, cable insulation. Oil wells, roof insulation is used. What is the difference between natural bitumen and oil?
These two materials have the same performance, but they have little differences, for example, petroleum bitumen has less than one percent of sulfur, but mineral bitumen has more than three percent. Iran has natural bitumen reserves. Other differences between mineral bitumen and oil bitumen is its purity.
One of the signs of suitable Gilsonite is its low impurity level. In general, mineral bitumen has impurities such as ash, and the amount of acidity and saponification of petroleum bitumen is less than that of natural bitumen.
Bitumen is an additive to bitumen to obtain adhesive properties. Some of the effective things of this product in bitumen include thinning the thickness of asphalt, reducing its weight, increasing the adhesion and viscosity of bitumen, and preventing the growth of plants in asphalt.
Have you seen the melting or melting of the street asphalt, using bitumen prevents the bitumen from melting in the summer season and heat and remaining stable, this substance prevents it from cracking as well as baldness. In Kermanshah and Ilam, there are major mines of natural bitumen.
Natural bitumen is available in solid form and with a high level of softness. The bitumen extracted from these sources is usually used for fuel for forging furnaces or in coking. Application of mineral bitumen in insulation, coating industries. It is pipe, coking, drilling cement and asphalt.
Gilsonite natural bitumen
The definitions, characteristics, and sources of mineral bitumen or Gilsonite are different. Bituminous materials are more diverse than oil due to having many sources. Bitumens are divided into three sources: natural bitumen, petroleum bitumen, and tar bitumen. Natural bitumen has been found in Butina River in Northeastern Utah.
Natural bitumen is like natural asphalt. It is soluble in alphaphatic and aromatic. Natural bitumen is a shiny, black material in stone form, and its color is darker in powder form.
Copper is obtained from the conversion of liquid to vapor of crude oil. Petroleum bitumen is the heavy residue of crude oil. It is interesting to know that bitumen obtained from different sources has differences. Tar tar is known as petroleum bitumen due to its appearance similarity to petroleum bitumen, but these two bitumen have different physical properties.
This type of bitumen is used for burning natural organic materials such as walnut wood or coal and their destructive distillation in the absence of air. Tar is used in road construction, mold coal soil, charcoal electrodes and glazing and coating of pipes. Natural bitumen can be used for fuel in iron furnaces. Natural bitumen is also used in the coking industry, which is used to produce natural bitumen or gilsonite fabric.
Coke is a material with a high purity of carbon content and no ash. This is why it burns easily. As mentioned, mineral bitumen or gilsonite is used for road construction, this material helps a lot in asphalting the roads at a lower cost.
Gilsonite bitumen
In this section, we want to examine 7 characteristics of Gilsonate bitumen, including the degree of penetration, viscosity, degree of ignition, weight loss, plasticity, degree of purity and degree of softness.
Penetration degree: To determine the hardness of bitumen, the penetration degree test is used. Putting a standard needle inside the bitumen for five seconds penetrates at a temperature of twenty-five degrees. The lower the penetration degree, the harder it is.
Viscosity: The viscosity characteristic of bitumen is measured with the C Bolt Fiorel industrial device.
Flammability degree: Flammability degree when the bitumen does not emit gases when the flame approaches.
Weight loss: Due to the evaporation of a part of oils and petroleum compounds, weight loss occurs. The weight loss of bitumen is measured at 163 degrees Celsius for 5 hours.
Ductility: The amount of increase in the length of the sample before breaking is called the plasticity property of bitumen in such a way that if bitumen with a surface of 1 cm is pulled at a speed of 5 cm per minute, its value is obtained.
Degree of purity: if we dissolve a sample of bitumen in the bitumen solvent of carbon tetrachloride and carbon sulfur in each of these materials, its impurities will remain, therefore, we can determine the degree of purity of bitumen. This degree of purity has a formula that includes reducing the weight. Bitumen is the weight of impurities divided by the weight of the bitumen sample.
Softness degree: The conversion of bitumen from a solid state to a liquid state by using a certain temperature is called the degree of softness. The higher the bitumen softness level, the lower its sensitivity. The softness degree of ordinary bitumen is between 60 and 70.
The price of Gilsonite bitumen
Various factors affect the price of Gilsonite and natural bitumen, which include currency fluctuations, international sanctions and domestic laws. Bitumen is one of the products sold in Iran’s oil market. Iran, having various mines, these products have a more reasonable price than to other countries, you can contact our advisors for online purchase of bitumen to guide you so that you can finalize your order with special payment conditions.
