Petroleum industry asphalt emulsion

Experience in class separations and analyses of fossil-derived materials began with the petroleum industry. The literature in this area is far too extensive to review here. Furthermore, petroleum literature deals principally with physical and chemical analyses of distillate fractions which are important to product characteristics. Recently, asphalts have received increased attention since they contain a wide range of known hazardous compounds. Most methods applied to whole samples of petroleum crudes have proven inadequate when dealing with synthetic coal liquids or shale oils because of stable emulsion formation in separation steps caused by larger amounts of inorganic and hydrophilic compounds. 

Another very important application of surface science in the petroleum industry that has recently been receiving much attention is the creation of oil-in-water asphaltic emulsions (asphalt dispersed in a brine continuous phase) which are used to pave roads (44). The idea is to decrease the viscosity of asphalt, while at the same time avoiding the use of gasoline. The latter is presently... 

Latex is a stable dispersion of a polymeric material (Table 8.13) in an essentially aqueous medium. An emulsion is a stable dispersion of two or more immiscible liquids held in suspension by small percentages of substances called emulsifiers. In the adhesives industry, the terms latex and emulsion are sometimes used interchangeably. There are three types of latex natural, synthetic, and artificial. Namral latex refers to the material obtained primarily from the rubber tree. Synthetic latexes are aqueous dispersions of polymers obtained by emulsion polymerization. These include polymers of chloroprene, butadiene-styrene, butadiene-acrylonitrile, vinyl acetate, acrylate, methacrylate, vinyl chloride, styrene, and vinylidene chloride. Artificial latexes are made by dispersing solid polymers. These include dispersions of reclaimed rubber, butyl rubber, rosin, rosin derivatives, asphalt, coal tar, and a large number of synthetic resins derived from coal tar and petroleum. ... 

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