Sulfur copolymerization includes combining elemental sulfur with modified bitumen to yield a mixture, blending the mixture, and curing the mixture to yield a copolymerized modified bitumen. The modified bitumen includes waste vegetable oil. Inverse vulcanization includes combining an unsaturated fatty acid and an alkaline earth metal (hydr)oxide to yield a mixture, combining elemental sulfur with the mixture, and processing the mixture to yield a sulfur copolymer.

The present disclosure sets out a method for processing bituminous road surfacing material from a road demolition. The bituminous road surfacing material is in the form of break out material and/or milled material. The following steps are carried out as part of the method: mixing the bituminous road surfacing material with water to form a mixture and adding a peroxide and/or a bicarbonate to the water and/or the mixture, in particular hydrogen peroxide and/or a bicarbonate.

Forming a modified bitumen includes contacting an oil with bitumen to yield a bitumen matrix comprising the oil, combining sulfur with the bitumen matrix, and reacting the sulfur with the oil to yield the modified bitumen. The modified bitumen composition includes bitumen, a sulfur component, and an oil component. The sulfur component is bonded covalently to the oil component, and the oil component is bonded covalently to the bitumen. An asphalt can include the modified bitumen.

Systems and methods are provided for controlling the morphology of coke produced during delayed coking. The morphology control is achieved in part by introducing elemental sulfur into the coker feedstock prior to coking. The elemental sulfur can be introduced into the feed under conditions so that the sulfur is well-dispersed within the feed for a sufficient period of time. This can allow for relatively even reaction of sulfur with components throughout the feed, resulting in a relatively small, uniform domain size distribution for the coke produced during delayed coking. This coke can correspond to shot coke. By producing coke with a small and relatively uniform domain size distribution, the risk of uneven heating within the coke can be reduced or minimized.

A method and apparatus are provided for processing hydrocarbon coal slurry feeds. The method and apparatus enhance the conversion of the coal feeds into useful conversion products, such as high melting and high carbon containing pitch products. In particular, the present techniques utilize a specially designed “self-cleaning” and “wall-catalyzed” preheater-reactor systems.

A method of producing one or more olefins and one or more lubricating base oils is disclosed. The method includes hydrocracking hydrocarbons of a hydrocarbon feed stream that include vacuum gasoil to produce a stream that includes hydrocracked hydrocarbons. The method further includes fractionating the stream that includes hydrocracked hydrocarbons to form intermediate streams. The method further includes steam cracking one or more of the intermediate streams to produce at least one olefin and processing one or more of the intermediate streams to produce at least one lubricating base oil.

A method for producing pitch can include: hydroprocessing a challenged feed from a refinery operation to produce a hydroprocessed product; distilling the hydroprocessed product to yield one or more upgraded fractions and a resid fraction; and solvent deasphalting the resid fraction to yield a deasphalted oil stream and a hydroprocessed pitch stream. The resultant pitch can have a micro carbon residue (MCR) of 50 wt % or greater, a solubility in toluene of 95 wt % or greater, and a softening point of 200 C. or less. The pitch can optionally be fluxed with a fluxing solvent.

Nucleation enhancement and/or growth rate improvement of mesophase in pitch compositions derived from hydrocarbon feedstocks can be achieved by: reacting in a reaction zone a blend comprising an isotropic feed and a seeding agent, to produce a reacted pitch having a mesophase content of about 10 vol % to 100 vol %, based on the total volume of the reacted pitch, and a softening point (T.sub.sp) below 400 C.; wherein the seeding agent is about 50 wt % or less, based on the total weight of the blend; wherein the seeding agent has a mesophase content of about 0.01 vol % to 100 vol %, based on the total volume of the seeding agent.

A method and apparatus are provided for processing hydrocarbon coal slurry feeds. The method and apparatus enhance the conversion of the coal feeds into useful conversion products, such as high melting and high carbon containing pitch products. In particular, the present techniques utilize a specially designed self-cleaning and wall-catalyzed preheater-reactor systems.

A system for upgrading asphaltenes includes an asphaltene treatment line, a series of asphaltene upgrade units, a series of carbon fiber production units, an aqueous collection unit, and a gaseous collection unit. The series of carbon fiber production unit includes a demetallizing unit that includes a first supercritical water (SCW) treatment unit and a first centrifugation unit, a desulfurizing unit that includes a second SCW treatment unit and a second centrifugation unit, and a polycondensation unit that includes a third SCW treatment unit and a third centrifugation unit. A method for mesophase pitch production from an asphaltene feedstock and a method for manufacturing carbon fibers from asphaltene feedstock are also described.