The use of recycled materials can have significant economic value. With the increasing quantity of recycled material used in viscoelastic materials, especially asphalt mixture, understanding how they interact with original materials to produce a mixture that performs successfully, becomes critical. Currently, the technology to determine the effect of additives on the performance of asphalt mixture is lacking. The present invention relates to a new unified methodology for mechanical testing of asphalt mixture and other viscoelastic materials that improves the current practice in speed, convenience, and accuracy. A new improved specimen mounting method on Dynamic Shear Rheometer (DSR), a new recovery method for fine portion of asphalt mixture, and three new tests for the performance of recovered material using DSR is disclosed. The new methods provide performance grading of asphalt mixtures that is new to the industry and provide necessary tools for determining the effect of recycled materials on performance.

A method for producing asphalt comprising a heat treatment step, wherein the rubber granules deriving from an end-of-life tyre granulation process are subjected to a temperature of between 80 and 300 C., for a period of time necessary in order to obtain rubber granules with a density of between 1.0 and 1.5 g/cm.sup.3; and a mixing step wherein the rubber granules from the heat treatment step are mixed with stone aggregate and bitumen in order to obtain asphalt.

A method for preparing a paving material includes heating an aggregate comprising recycled asphalt pavement using an emitter generating electromagnetic radiation having a wavelength of from 2 microns to 1 millimeter. The method utilizes solid phase autoregenerative cohesion to prepare a material suitable for use as an aggregate in a hot mix asphalt pavement installation.

Disclosed is method that involves subjecting a base material to an extraction process to extract hydrocarbon fractions having molecular weights within a desired range from the base material to generate a resultant extraction material comprising mostly if not entirely of hydrocarbon fractions having molecular weights within the desired range. In some embodiments, the extraction process can involve performing the extraction in iterations.

Methods are provided to prepare a low sulfur fuel from hydrocarbon sources, such as light tight oil and high sulfur fuel oil, often less desired by conventional refiners, who split crude into a wide range of differing products and may prefer presence of wide ranges (C3 or C5 to C20 or higher) of hydrocarbons. These fuels can be produced by separating feeds into untreated and treated streams, and then recombining them. Such fuels can also be formulated by combinations of light, middle and heavy range constituents in a selected manner as claimed. Not only low in sulfur, the fuels of this invention are also low in nitrogen and essentially metals free. Fuel use applications include on-board large marine transport vessels but also on-shore for large land based combustion gas turbines, boilers, fired heaters and transport vehicles and trains.

Pitch production systems utilizing coal tar or decant oil for coal. or petroleum based pitch are disclosed. Total pitch production yields are increased by heat treating distillate fractions from the pitch production process. A heat treatment system and process are disclosed in embodiments. The heaviest distillates having the highest molecular weights are subjected to heat treatment, though other embodiments contemplate heat treating a variety of combined distillate fractions. The heat treatment systems require heat soaking the distillate(s) at elevated temperatures of 459-535 C. at a near-constant temperature with near-uniform flow. A fraction of the heat-treated distillate may be reintroduced to the pitch production system as part of a continuous process.

Methods are provided to prepare a low sulfur fuel from hydrocarbon sources, such as light tight oil and high sulfur fuel oil, often less desired by conventional refiners, who split crude into a wide range of differing products and may prefer presence of wide ranges (C3 or C5 to C20 or higher) of hydrocarbons. These fuels can be produced by separating feeds into untreated and treated streams, and then recombining them. Such fuels can also be formulated by combinations of light, middle and heavy range constituents in a selected manner as claimed. Not only low in sulfur, the fuels of this invention are also low in nitrogen and essentially metals free. Fuel use applications include on-board large marine transport vessels but also on-shore for large land based combustion gas turbines, boilers, fired heaters and transport vehicles and trains.

Methods are provided to prepare a low sulfur fuel from hydrocarbon sources, such as light tight oil and high sulfur fuel oil, often less desired FIG. 5 by conventional refiners, who split crude into a wide range of differing products and may prefer presence of wide ranges (C3 or C5 to C20 or higher) of hydrocarbons. These fuels can be produced by separating feeds into untreated and treated streams, and then recombining them. Such fuels can also be formulated by combinations of light, middle and heavy range constituents in a selected manner as claimed. Not only low in sulfur, the fuels of this invention are also low in nitrogen and essentially metals free. Fuel use applications include on-board large marine transport vessels but also on-shore for large land based combustion gas turbines, boilers, fired heaters and transport vehicles and trains.

Methods are provided to prepare a low sulfur fuel from hydrocarbon sources, such as light tight oil and high sulfur fuel oil, often less desired by conventional refiners, who split crude into a wide range of differing products and may prefer presence of wide ranges (C3 or C5 to C20 or higher) of hydrocarbons. These fuels can be produced by separating feeds into untreated and treated streams, and then recombining them. Such fuels can also be formulated by combinations of light, middle and heavy range constituents in a selected manner as claimed. Not only low in sulfur, the fuels of this invention are also low in nitrogen and essentially metals free. Fuel use applications include on-board large marine transport vessels but also on-shore for large land based combustion gas turbines, boilers, fired heaters and transport vehicles and trains.

Methods are provided to prepare a low sulfur fuel from hydrocarbon sources, such as light tight oil and high sulfur fuel oil, often less desired by conventional refiners, who split crude into a wide range of differing products and may prefer presence of wide ranges (C3 or CS to C20 or higher) of hydrocarbons. These fuels can be produced by separating feeds into untreated and treated streams, and then recombining them. Such fuels can also be formulated by combinations of light, middle and heavy range constituents in a selected manner as claimed. Not only low in sulfur, the fuels of this invention are also low in nitrogen and essentially metals free. Fuel use applications include on-board large marine transport vessels but also on-shore for large land based combustion gas turbines, boilers, fired heaters and transport vehicles and trains.