PROPERTY PREDICTION FOR ASPHALTS FROM BLENDED SOURCES

摘要

Methods are provided for predicting the properties of an asphalt fraction that contains two or more asphalt components based on measurements of the viscosity for the asphalt fraction. Based on the measured viscosity, a virtual cut point is determined for a virtual asphalt blend that has the same viscosity (to within a tolerance value) as the measured viscosity for the asphalt fraction. The virtual cut point is then used to determine a variety of predicted property values for the asphalt fraction. Optionally, the predicted property values can be used to adjust the actual cut point for the distillation or separation process used for forming the asphalt fraction.

主权项

1. A method for predicting asphalt properties, comprising:
measuring a kinematic viscosity of an asphalt fraction at a temperature of 100° C. to 150° C., the asphalt fraction being formed by separation of a feed containing asphalt components from a plurality of crude sources based on a cut point temperature, the asphalt components being present in the feed in a first set of ratios; determining a virtual cut point for a virtual asphalt blend comprising the asphalt components having a kinematic viscosity that is within a viscosity tolerance of the measured kinematic viscosity, the virtual cut point being determined based on measured kinematic viscosity values for the asphalt components and the first set of ratios for the asphalt components; calculating a second set of ratios corresponding to a virtual composition of the asphalt components in the virtual asphalt blend based on the virtual cut point; calculating one or more properties other than kinematic viscosity for the asphalt fraction based on the second set of ratios for the asphalt components and at least one of the virtual cut point, the measured kinematic viscosity, or the determined kinematic viscosity for the virtual asphalt blend; and modifying the cut point temperature for the separation based on a calculated value for at least one of the one or more properties other than kinematic viscosity.