Continuous process for fractioning, combination, and recombination of asphalt components for pelletization and packaging of asphalt and asphalt-containing products
AssigneeGala Industries, Inc.
InventorsJohn Bolton, Roger B. Wright
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A continuous process for fractioning, combination, and recombination of asphalt sources into asphalt components for pelletization of asphalt and asphalt-containing products such that the pellets formed are generally uniform in dimension, freely flowing, free from agglomeration, and the pelletized asphalt is packaged, and preferably compatibly packaged, for additional processing and applications.
Claims29
A method of forming one or more coated asphalt pellets from an original asphalt source material, the method comprising:
- asphalt source processing comprising separating out one or more individual components of a portion of the original asphalt source material;
- pre-pelletization processing comprising blending one or more of the individual components with another portion of the original asphalt source material to form a blended asphalt material;
- pelletizing the blended asphalt material to form uncoated pellets;
- and
- post-pelletization processing comprising coating the uncoated pellets with one or more of the individual components,
- wherein the coated pellets are free-flowing, non-tacky, not destructively alterable by compression on packaging and storage, and of similar composition to the original asphalt source material.
A method of forming one or more coated asphalt pellets from an original asphalt source material, the coated asphalt pellets being free flowing, relatively tack-free, and minimally compressible under packaging and storage, the method comprising:
- asphalt source processing comprising separating out one or more individual components of a portion of the original asphalt source material;
- pre-pelletization processing comprising blending one or more of the individual components with another portion of the original asphalt source material to form a blended asphalt material;
- pelletizing the blended asphalt material to form uncoated pellets;
- and
- post-pelletization processing comprising coating the uncoated pellets with one or more layers of the individual components.
A method for pelletizing an asphalt component, the method comprising:
- separating an asphalt source into a plurality of fractions;
- blending at least two of the fractions of the asphalt source to form an asphalt component;
- subjecting the asphalt component to pre-pelletization processing comprising at least one of thermal modification, filtration, drying, devolatilization, solvent extraction, thermal extraction, phase separation, distillation, solvent deasphalting, fractioning, pyrolysis, mixing, blending, or visbreaking;
- pelletizing the asphalt component to form an asphalt component pellet;
- coating the uncoated asphalt component pellet with one or more of the plurality of fractions of the asphalt source;
- and
- drying and/or packaging the asphalt component pellet produced by pelletization, without further modification such that the packaged product is compatible for use in post-packaging processing including product applications.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.