Sustainable valorization of asphaltenes via flash joule heating

Abstract

The refining process of petroleum crude oil generates asphaltenes, which poses complicated problems during the production of cleaner fuels. Following refining, asphaltenes are typically combusted for reuse as fuel or discarded into tailing ponds and landfills, leading to economic and environmental disruption. Here, we show that low-value asphaltenes can be converted into a high-value carbon allotrope, asphaltene-derived flash graphene (AFG), via the flash joule heating (FJH) process. After successful conversion, we develop nanocomposites by dispersing AFG into a polymer effectively, which have superior mechanical, thermal, and corrosion-resistant properties compared to the bare polymer. In addition, the life cycle and technoeconomic analysis show that the FJH process leads to reduced environmental impact compared to the traditional processing of asphaltene and lower production cost compared to other FJH precursors. Thus, our work suggests an alternative pathway to the existing asphaltene processing that directs toward a higher value stream while sequestering downstream emissions from the processing.

Conversion of CO2‐Derived Amorphous Carbon into Flash Graphene Additives

“…The resulting "flash" graphene (FG) is turbostratic [14] and less defective than graphene made by the reduction of graphene oxide. [15] flash Joule heating (FJH) enables rapid, inexpensive graphene synthesis from any carbon-containing feedstock, including rubber tires, [16] metallurgical coke, [17,18] asphaltenes, [19] and carbon black. [20][21][22] In addition to CO 2 emission concerns, plastic pollution is also a significant environmental problem.…”

Polymer Additives with Gas Barrier and Anti‐Aging Properties Made from Asphaltenes via Supercritical Ethanol

“…The asphaltene-derived flash graphene showed improved mechanical, thermal, and anticorrosion properties for the composites compared to the bare polymer. [17] Research on the structure of asphaltene has revealed that it primarily consists of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons with alkane branches, as well as other heteroatoms such as O and N. [8,18] In this study, we employed the supercritical method to assemble nano-scale asphaltene units into ethylated carbon clusters (ECC). This assembly was achieved through molecular electrostatic attraction and 𝜋-𝜋 * interaction.…”

“…The asphaltene‐derived flash graphene showed improved mechanical, thermal, and anti‐corrosion properties for the composites compared to the bare polymer. [ 17 ]…”

Replacement of Concrete Aggregates with Coal-Derived Flash Graphene

“…Recently, our research group demonstrated that flash Joule heating (FJH) could be used to synthesize flash graphene (FG) from a variety of different feedstocks, including waste plastic, − coffee grounds, asphaltenes, soybean oil, and rubber tires . The resulting FG is turbostratic and more easily dispersed in composites than graphene produced from exfoliation of graphite .…”