Product Description

Bitumen is an oil based non-crystalline solid or viscous substance having adhesive properties derived from petroleum either by natural or refinery processes, and substantially soluble in carbon disulphide.It is a mixture of organic liquids that are highly viscous, black, sticky, entirely soluble in carbon disulfide, and composed primarily of highly condensed polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons.Bitumen is obtained by removing the lighter fractions (such as liquid petroleum gas, petrol and diesel) by distillation of blends of heavy crude oil during the refining process containing at least one bitumen crude.As such it is correctly known as refined bitumen. In North America, bitumen is commonly known as “asphalt cement” or “asphalt”.While elsewhere “asphalt” is the term used for a mixture of small stones, sand, filler and bitumen, which is used as a road paving material.The asphalt mixture contains approximately five per cent bitumen. At ambient temperatures bitumen is a stable, semi-solid substance.
Crude bitumen is a sticky, tar-like form of petroleum which is so thick and heavy that it must be heated or diluted before it will flow.At room temperature, it has a consistency much like cold molasses. Refined bitumen is the residual (bottom) fraction obtained by fractional distillation of crude oil. It is the heaviest fraction and the one with the highest boiling point, boiling at **5 °C (**7 °F).Contrary to a common but mistaken idea, bitumen is not an oil residue that the petroleum industry wants to get rid of at little cost.In reality, to produce bitumen of good quality with constant properties, refiner meticulously select one or more bitumen crude, following very strict internal approval procedures.