Asphalt composition

Abstract

An asphalt composition includes asphalt and spent adsorbent material from a solvent deasphalting unit. The asphalt can comprise asphaltic material obtained from a solvent deasphalting unit, and spent adsorbent material in the asphalt composition was previously utilized in the solvent deasphalting unit. The asphalt composition can also include process reject materials.

1 . An asphalt composition comprising asphalt and spent adsorbent material from a solvent deasphalting unit. 
     
     
         2 . The asphalt composition of  claim 1 ,
 wherein the asphalt comprises asphaltic material produced by a solvent deasphalting process in which solute material including asphaltenes are separated from a hydrocarbon oil feedstock containing asphaltenes with a paraffinic solvent and an adsorbent material, and further wherein spent adsorbent material in the asphalt composition is recovered from the solvent deasphalting process.   
     
     
         3 . The asphalt composition of  claim 1 , wherein asphalt is separated from a hydrocarbon oil feedstock containing asphaltenes with a paraffinic solvent having from 3 to 8 carbons. 
     
     
         4 . The asphalt composition of  claim 1 , wherein asphalt is derived from a hydrocarbon oil feedstock containing asphaltenes by a two-stage solvent process that includes:
 a first stage of contacting the feedstock with an adsorbent material and a paraffinic solvent, and recovering the paraffinic solvent; and   a second stage of passing the combined feedstock and adsorbent to a filtration vessel with an aromatic or polar solvent and recovering the asphalt.   
     
     
         5 . The asphalt composition of  claim 4 , wherein the spent adsorbent material is in the form of pellets, spheres, extrudates and/or or natural shapes. 
     
     
         6 . The asphalt composition of  claim 4 , wherein the spent adsorbent material is 4-60 mesh. 
     
     
         7 . The asphalt composition of  claim 1 , wherein the spent adsorbent material is selected from the group consisting of attapulgus clay, alumina, silica, activated carbon, silica alumina and zeolite catalyst material derived from one or more intermediate refining processes of hydrotreating, hydrocracking, or fluid catalytic cracking, and combinations comprising at least one of the foregoing adsorbent materials. 
     
     
         8 . The asphalt composition of  claim 1 , wherein the spent absorbent material includes adsorbed heavy polynuclear aromatic molecules, compounds containing sulfur, compounds containing nitrogen compounds containing metals and/or metals. 
     
     
         9 . The asphalt composition of  claim 1 , wherein the spent adsorbent material has a surface area of 10-500 m 2 /g. 
     
     
         10 . The asphalt composition of  claim 4 , wherein the spent adsorbent material has a pore size of 10-5000 angstroms (0.001-0.5 microns). 
     
     
         11 . The asphalt composition of  claim 4 , wherein the spent adsorbent material is derived from adsorbent material having a pore volume of 0.1-0.5 cc/g. 
     
     
         12 . The asphalt composition of  claim 11 , wherein the spent adsorbent material has 50% of its original pore volume blocked by deposited carbonaceous material. 
     
     
         13 . An asphalt composition as in  claim 1  comprising solids in the range 0.5-25 weight %. 
     
     
         14 . The asphalt composition of  claim 1  wherein spent adsorbent materials comprise 1-50 volume % of the total composition. 
     
     
         15 . An asphalt composition comprising asphalt and desorbed components from an adsorbent material. 
     
     
         16 . The asphalt composition as in  claim 15 , wherein the desorbed components comprise process reject materials including heavy hydrocarbon molecules containing sulfur, nitrogen and/or heavy aromatic molecules.