Process for reduction of emissions in asphalt production
AssigneeSanford P. Brass
InventorsKenneth Hucker, Sanford P. Brass
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A process and apparatus are disclosed that relate generally to a process for reducing harmful or unwanted emissions during the production of asphalt, such as blue smoke. The process includes the introduction of a pump around of the wax oil fraction for re-introduction into the vacuum tower. Additional desirable features include stripping trays below the wax oil collection tray and the feed zone. The result is to produce an asphalt product that creates less blue smoke in the hot mix plant. Another desirable feature is that a product can be created that meets Performance Grade specifications with the addition of polymers or other additives.
Claims9
A process for separating a feed crude into fractional products comprising the steps of:
- feeding the feed crude into a pre-flash vessel to produce therefrom an overhead light ends product and a liquid flashed crude feed;
- introducing the flashed crude feed to a heater to produce a partially vaporized crude feed;
- feeding the partially vaporized crude feed into a feed zone of a vacuum tower to produce from the vacuum tower an overhead vapor stream, a middle distillate oil fraction, a wax oil fraction, and a bottoms asphalt product;
- the feed zone being located below a wax oil collection tray that collect essentially all liquids on the wax oil collection tray into the wax oil fraction;
- heating a portion of the wax oil fraction;
- and
- feeding the portion of the heated wax oil fraction into the feed zone.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.