公开(公告)号：US20240336847A1

公开(公告)日：2024-10-10

申请号：US18380561

申请日：2023-10-16

申请人： Subodh Gupta ,  Anita ,  Sarbajit Banerjee ,  Wasif Zaheer

发明人： Subodh Gupta ,  Anita ,  Sarbajit Banerjee ,  Wasif Zaheer

IPC分类号： C10C3/16 ,  C08L95/00 ,  C10G1/00

CPC分类号： C10C3/16 ,  C08L95/00 ,  C10G1/00 ,  C10G2300/4075

摘要： Disclosed herein are methods of preparing bitumen for transport, apparatus for preparing bitumen for transport, methods of transporting bitumen, and transportation-ready forms of bitumen. Instead of relying on exogenous components to induce bitumen solidification, the methods and apparatus of the present disclosure reorganize bituminous materials derived from the same origin into core-shell bitumen microcapsules, such that relatively low solubility components (e.g. asphaltenes) encapsulate relatively high solubility components (e.g. maltenes). Importantly, the bitumen microcapsules of the present disclosure are sufficiently mechanically resilient to meet one or more thresholds for midstream transportation, and they are readily fluidized for downstream processing with conventional technologies. Taken together, these aspects may ameliorate one or more challenges in achieving commercially viable bitumen solidification technologies.