Preparation and treating of bituminous compositions

#This application is the 35 U.S.C. 371 national stage of International application PCT/FR2005/003207 filed on Dec. 20, 2005; which claimed priority to France application 04/13750 filed on Dec. 22, 2004. The entire contents of each of the above-referenced applications are hereby incorporated by reference.

#The present invention relates to the use of particular organic compounds for preparing or treating bituminous compositions. The invention also relates to the bituminous compositions thus prepared or treated using these particular organic compounds.

#The term “bituminous compositions” means in particular: a) crude petroleum and bitumens, asphalts and fuel oils derived from petroleum, and also bituminous binders based on such products, b) bitumens and asphalts of natural origin, and also bituminous binders based on such products, c) any fraction obtained by any separation technique from bitumens, asphalts and fuel oils of any origin, d) carbon-based chemical products derived from the pyrolysis of charcoal, e) tars of any origin, in particular derived from coal or wood and any fraction that may be obtained therefrom, f) Theological analogs of the above-mentioned products, especially of the bitumens and bituminous binders, based on resins of natural origin (natural rosins, pitch, accroid resins, balsam resins, shellac, etc.), g) rheological analogs of the above-mentioned products, especially of the bitumens and bituminous binders, based on any derivative obtained via any technique, especially a chemical technique, for modifying said natural resins, such as modified rosins and modified terpenic resins, h) any composition containing at least 25% and preferably at least 50% by weight of at least any one of the abovementioned products a) to g) and also possibly containing, for example, at least one other component chosen from water, mineral, animal and vegetable oils and derivatives of said oils, for instance the methyl esters, synthetic resins, elastomers or (thermo)plastics of natural or synthetic origin such as rubbers, coloring materials and granulates (stones, gravel, broken gravel, sand, etc.).

#This test examines the advantage, in particular as fluxing agents, of selected organic compounds according to the invention, in the field of preparing bituminous compositions.

#A bitumen of “20/30” type provided by the company Eurovia is softened at a temperature of 100° C. in an oven. The softened bitumen is introduced into a Rheomix brand batch mixer, heated to 135° C.

#Using this additive-free bitumen-based composition (“Bitumen T1”), the bituminous compositions below are prepared (Bitumens T2, T3 and T4 not in accordance with the invention and Bitumens A, B and C in accordance with the invention) by introducing 8 wt/wt % of bitumen of, respectively: Bitumen T2: a commercial product of petrochemical origin, conventionally used as a bitumen-fluxing agent, having a very strong odor, a brown color, an aromatic nature, a flash point of between 60 and 65° C., a distillation temperature of about 190° C. and a density close to 0.97, Bitumen T3: a composition based on methyl esters of sunflower oil, with a characteristic odor of raw vegetable oil, a pale yellow color, a flash point of about 188° C., a distillation temperature close to 350° C. and a density of about 0.88, Bitumen T4: idem Bitumen T3 except that 0.15% (by weight/weight of bitumen) of manganese octanoate as siccative has also been introduced, Bitumen A: an odorless dimethyl isosorbide (DMI) composition prepared by the Applicant, Bitumen B: butyl lactate, of characteristic odor, sold by the company Sigma, Bitumen C: the relatively odorless “DBE® dibasic esters” composition based on dimethyl esters of glutaric, succinic and adipic acids, sold by the company Invista.