Technologies – Oily Sludge & Natural Asphalt
Our Team
Research and Development Team
Our R&D team consists of qualified and experienced individuals who possess certain expertise in this field, which include 3 senior-level professional engineer and 8 professional engineers. With a combination of young courageous mind and experience of the old, our R&D team is able to produce innovative solutions and discover new breakthrough to existing problems, while working together towards a common goal. Our R&D team emphasized heavily in the development of oneself and the important of teamwork, which form the core competitiveness of our group, and clearly differentiates us from our market rivals.
Part of the R&D Facilities
Quality Assurance and Quality Control Team
Our QA/QC team is made up of a team of qualified and highly experienced engineers from various disciplines, who are familiar with the ins and outs of this field. Our QA/QC team carefully scrutinizes each and every step of our demulsifying agent production process to ensure the consistency of our end product, while random samples are taken and tested in the lab to verify that the demulsifying agent meets the specification required by our clients. Our oil sludge treatment process and natural asphalt extraction process is heavily regulated by the team to guarantee that the process works exactly according to our design. As a green company, the team poised to optimize the usage of surrounding resources to produce quality products with consistency, without harming the delicate balance of the surrounding environment.
Our Technologies
Current Market Condition
Oily sludge refers to the tar-like waste generated from oil excavation or refining activities, which consists of oil-water-solid substance that suspense in water to form a colloidal. Oily sludge is difficult to treat due to the stable bond between oil and water, thus making it near impossible to be dewatered using conventional method.
The oil refining sector and petrochemical industry generates significant amount of oily sludge annually, and it is estimated that around 43,076 tons/day of oily sludge is generated globally from the oil refining sector alone. Treatment of oily sludge requires enormous capital injection while disposal of it can incur considerable cost as it is classified as hazardous material under National law. As world crude oil reserves decline, refineries are forced to refined lower quality crude oil, which produces more oily sludge as its by product.
Hence, it is essential for oil refining and petrochemical industry to explore alternative upstream treatment methods that can efficiently manage and exploit the economic benefits of oily sludge.
Our Oily Sludge Treatment Technology
Beijing E Solvent Technologies developed a series of oily sludge demulsifying agents to cater for various purposes. Our demulsifying agents possess excellent penetration and good dispersion properties, which allows it to spread thoroughly across the oily sludge. After that, the active surface agent will penetrate and weaken the bond between the oil-solid mixtures, which results in complete separation of these two substances. Our test report indicates that up to 95%~99% of oil could be recovered from the oily sludge, with relatively clean water and solids separated from the mixture.
We integrated green technology into our production line by using non-harmful, low toxic industrial waste as raw materials. Contrary to public concern, our demulsifying agent is safe to the environment as only minute amount is needed in the oily sludge treatment process, whilst all of demulsifying agent can be recycled back into the system without disposing into the surrounding environment.
Our demulsifying agents are manufactured via high-pressure polymerization method, and can be adjusted to suit the treatment for different types of oily sludge.
Features and Advantages of the Technology
- Our technology caters to the treatment of multiple types of oily sludge.
- Our demulsifying agent are eco-friendly as it uses small quantity of industrial chemical waste as its raw material, and will not pollute the environment even if it is accidentally discharged into open water.
- Ability to achieve a complete separation of the oil-solid substance, thus allowing it to have high oil recovery rate.
- Our patented technology can be conducted at lower temperatures, thus saving precious energy and lowers operation costs.
- The processed water and demulsifying agent can be recycled back into the system, which allows maximum utilization of resources with zero waste emission into the environment.
Reference
Beijing E Solvent Technologies has supplied its demulsifying agents for oil sludge to several large oilfields in China, including Daqing oilfield and Liaohe oilfield for their oily sludge treatment. Previously, oily sludge was treated as waste and disposed directly in landfills since existing technology could not completely and effectively demulsify the oil content, partly also due to the varying characteristics of the oily sludge.
With the introduction of our ground-breaking treatment technology, the oil content was successfully recovered, clean water was salvaged and channeled back into the treatment process, while remaining solid tailings were used as a raw materials for the manufacturing of construction bricks.
A right combination of demulsifying agent ratio and the temperature is essential to facilitate the treatment of different types of oily sludge. Treated oily sludge will be separated cleanly into three fractions, namely oil, water and solid tailings, with the following specifications:
- Oil Recovery Rate:: ≥ 95% ~ 99%
- Moisture Content in Oil: 1% ~ 5%
- Oil Content in Treated Water: ≤ 1.0 ~ 2.5 mg/L
- Oil Content in Solid Tailings: ≤ 3000mg/L
| Content | E Solvent Technology | China National Emissions Standard (GB8978/1996)
Specifications for Third-Class Standard |
|---|---|---|
| Suspended Matter | 47 mg/L | 400 mg/L |
| 5-day Biological Oxygen Demand | 147 mg/L | 300 mg/L |
| Chemical Oxygen Demand | 63 mg/L | 500 mg/L |
| Copper Content | 0.05 mg/L | 2.0 mg/L |
| Zinc Content | 0.08 mg/L | 5.0 mg/L |
| Manganese Content | 0.01 mg/L | 5.0 mg/L |
| Coliform Bacteria Colony | 20 count/L | 1000 count/L |
Technical Flow Chart
Technology Overview
This technology process flow is designed exclusively to be used with our oily sludge demulsifying agent. Initially untreated oily sludge is channeled into a reaction tank, where it will be heated to 100°C via steam injection. The demulsifying agent will be diluted with water at a predetermined ratio before it is added into the reaction tank. Under the reaction of the demulsifying agent, oil will be released from the sludge and forms a layer on the water surface, whereas the heavier solid will sink to the bottom of the tank. The oil layer is skimmed off and channeled to a collection tank, whereas the remainder liquid is centrifuged to further separate the liquid-solid mixture, before it is recycled into the system again. A portion of the recovered water will go through multiple processes such as flocculation and sterilization before combining with the collected solid tailings to be processed into construction bricks. Our technology ensures that all of the by-products are fully utilized with no pollution to the surrounding environment.
Features of Technology
- Simplified technology with high degree of flexibility, easier to fit into all kinds of operations in the treatment of multiple types of oil sludge.
- Maximizes resource recovery with minimal pollution or emission to the surrounding environment.
- Recovered oil is sufficiently clean to be used to produce higher value fuel and possessed significant economic value.
Market Potential
Asphalt, or more commonly known as bitumen, is a black, sticky and highly viscous liquid or semi-solid form of petroleum. It is the residual from petroleum refining process, but can also be found in natural deposits in the form of natural asphalt. Its adhesive nature combined with its waterproofing properties makes it an excellent material for construction sector, primarily in road pavement and roofing applications, while the softer ones are commonly used as insulating material in the manufacturing industry.
Extended period of natural oxidation process has given natural asphalt its unique anti-aging and anti-rutting properties, and is often used as an additives in the manufacturing of premium grade paving bitumen. Under China’s thirteenth Five-year Plan, road construction projects is expected to concentrate in the western part of China, which aims to connect the rural western cities with major cities in eastern China. This provides an enormous market potential for natural bitumen.
Our Natural Asphalt Extraction Technology
Our natural asphalt demulsifying agent is formulated based on our oily sludge demulsifying agent, and carefully adjusted to meet the characteristics of natural asphalt. Our demulsifying agent possesses excellent penetration ability and good dispersion properties, which allows it to spread thoroughly across the natural asphalt. The demulsifying agent possess highly active demulsifying properties, effectively lowering the interfacial tension between the asphaltene-solid, results in the complete separation of these two substances. Our field test indicates that up to 99% of the asphaltene can be cleanly extracted from the natural asphalt, leaving behind water and solid tailings.
Contrary to the traditional use as a binder in road paving activities, our technology has created a new frontier for natural bitumen with the extraction of useful asphaltene and other crude oil fraction from the natural asphalt, which holds huge market potential in today’s crude oil market.
Qualities and Benefits of the Technology
- Our natural asphalt demulsifying agent is environmentally friendly as it uses industrial chemical waste as its raw material, with the entire extraction process regulated to ensure that no external disposal of waste that could pollute the surrounding environment.
- Clean separation of the asphaltene-solid substance, where the extracted asphaltene can be further processed into different kinds of fuel oil products.
- Preserve the structure of the asphaltene, thus maintaining the unique qualities only found in natural asphalt.
- Our technology can achieve optimal result at lower temperature, which translates into lower operation costs and emissions.
- Processed water and demulsifying agent can be recycled back into the system, which allows the maximum utilization of resources with zero waste emission into the environment.
Features of Technology
Field test conducted on natural asphalt from Buton Island, Indonesia using our natural asphalt demulsifying agent yields satisfying results. This has opened up the possibility of tapping into a new source of crude similar to those found in oil sands. Based on the results of the field test and past studies, all of the bituminous content can be extracted. Solid tailings from the process consists of high calcium and calcium carbonate content which are indispensable ingredients in cement production, in addition to being a good raw material for brick-making.
A right combination of demulsifying agent is essential in the overall extraction process of natural asphalt. Treated natural asphalt will be separated cleanly into three portions, namely asphaltene, water and solid tailings, with the following specifications:
- Asphaltene Recovery Rate: ≥ 99%
- Moisture Content in Asphaltene: 3-5%
- Ash Content in Asphaltene: ≤ 2%
- Asphaltene Content in Solid Tailings: 0.7-0.8%
Technical Flow Chart
Technology Overview
Under the reaction of the demulsifying agent, the lighter asphaltene layer will form a froth layer at the top while the denser tailings will settle at the bottom of the tank. The bitumen froth will be skimmed off and channeled into a settlement tank, where it undergoes further separation by gravitational settlement. The clean bitumen layer is then channeled into a collection tank before it is refined into quality petroleum products such as heavy fuel oil and paving bitumen. Meanwhile, the water phase undergoes centrifugation to rid of any solids before it is recycled into the system again. A portion of the recovered water will go through multiple processes such as flocculation and sterilization before combining with the collected solid tailings to be processed into construction bricks. Our technology ensures that all of the by-products are fully utilized with no pollution to the surrounding environment.
Features of Technology
- Straightforward, flexible and safe technology process, can easily be adopted in large commercial production process.
- Extracted asphaltene can be further refined to obtain higher quality products, which possesses better properties compared to typical petroleum bitumen.
- Treatment process causes no pollution to the environment while maximizes utilization of all the materials.
- Maximizes the usage of the by-products, not only that it brings economic benefit to the surrounding community but also realizing the technology’s aim to create a zero-waste emission facility.
Buton Mastic Asphalt
Buton Mastic Asphalt, or known as BMA, is a bituminous substance that has better stability and higher asphaltene content than asphalt. BMA is a kind of mineral deposits, due to earth’s crust movement, crude oil seep onto the surface. After millions of years and the combination of effects of high temperature, high pressure, sunlight, oxidation, catalysts, microorganisms; the bituminous substance was formed in an oxidative polymerization under natural conditions.
As a result; BMA’s properties are comparative stable & premium, predominantly it contains almost double the amount of asphaltene compares to petroleum asphalt (petroleum asphalt; asphaltene is approximately 13.5%; whilst BMA contains 22%); acting as an asphalt additive or modifier, BMA is capable of improving the quality of asphalt mixture greatly, hence, enhancing overall roads and bridges construction quality. For this reason, its development and investment together with its environmental benefits should be prominent enough to encourage more usage.
Asphalt consumption in China and Southeast Asia reached 45 million tons/year (December 2020), a 30% mixing ratio of BMA will simply translate to a huge market potential of 12 million tons per year; with this amount, it will surely transform the roads and bridges construction ecosystem.
Characteristics of Buton Mastic Asphalt (BMA)
- Anti-Rutting
Tests and road practices have proved that rock asphalt modifiers can effectively improve the anti-rutting ability of asphalt pavements, delay the generation of road ruts, reduce the depth of ruts, and the appearance of fatigue shear cracks. - Anti-Stripping
The nitrogen element in rock asphalt exists in the form of functional groups. This makes rock asphalt possess strong wettability and high resistance to free oxidizing groups. This will significantly improve the adhesion to aggregates and the resistance to peeling. - Anti-Aging and High Temperature Resistance
Softening point of natural rock asphalt itself is above 300℃. Adding to petroleum asphalt will give good resistance to high temperature and aging. - Weather Resistance
BMA has a strong anti-microbial erosion effect and has the characteristics of forming a dense and bright protective film on the free surface. The addition of rock asphalt greatly improves the weather resistance and UV resistance of ordinary asphalt, improves the durability of asphalt pavement and slows down the aging of asphalt, thereby prolonging the service life of the road.
Comparison of Asphaltene Content, Resin Content and Wax Content in Bitumen AH70 and BMA
Item
- Asphaltene Content (m%)
- Resin Content (m%)
- Wax Content (m%)
Patented Portable Equipment
Our unique aquatics lapping and sheering is capable to reduce the size of granular up to 100-mesh which eliminate the separation and settlement issues while enhancing the unification of petroleum asphalt and natural asphalt.
The Patented Portable Equipment is independently developed by our company.
- User-friendly
- Eliminate settlement and separation issues in the mixing materials, hence, low down time
- High efficiency and low power consumption (less than 120kWh)
- Consistent product quality
- Cost saving
The Patented Portable Equipment is customized into a 20-foot size container, covering an area of 25m2 for easily fit into asphalt mixing plant (AMP) area as well as easy logistics, loading and unloading.
It is flexible; all connection by flanges, easy for installation and erection with minimum modification jobs and the “By Pass System” doesn’t affect the existing production system.
Low investment (modifications) and it is free for use at the asphalt mixing plant (AMP).