Bitumen
It is a complex and complicated substance that has been recognized by human long years ago.
Bitumen is a black to the dark brown sticky material, composed principally of high-molecular-weight hydrocarbons. Bitumen is a product of
Crude oil Distillation.
It is a semi-solid hydrocarbon product produced by removing the lighter fractions (such as liquid petroleum gas, petrol, and diesel) from heavy crude oil during the refining process.
As such, it is correctly known as refined bitumen. “asphalt cement” or “asphalt” 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. At ambient temperatures, bitumen is a stable, semi-solid substance.
Natural Bitumen – Gilsonite
Also, Bitumen naturally is beneath the earth crust as springs, lakes, and surface mines and occurs in the form of solid and liquid. In some countries, it can be found as a component of natural rock asphalt.
History of Bitumen
The Sumerians also used it as early as the third millennium BCE in statuary, mortaring brick walls, waterproofing baths, and drains, in stair treads, and for shipbuilding. Other cultures such as Babylon, India, Persia, Egypt, and ancient Greece and Rome continued these uses, and in several cases, the bitumen has continued to hold components securely together to this day. In some versions of the Book of Genesis in the Bible, the name of the substance used to bind the bricks of the Tower of Babel is translated as bitumen.
Bitumen uses and Applications
Bitumen has been used for building construction and, even mummification. In fact, it was bitumen which had used by our ancestors and in the late nineteenth century had been used for making roads and pavements. Finally by discovering oil and create residual bitumen, the way to use a huge amount of bitumen been opened. Not all crude oils are sufficiently rich in heavy components to yield bitumen economically.
Crude oils are examples of so-called light crudes containing very little suitable heavy residue.
Heavy crude oils usually have a large content of heavy residue suitable for bitumen.
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