Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Pyrolysis properties of four SARA fractions in asphalt

  • Published:
Journal of Thermal Analysis and Calorimetry Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Pyrolysis property is an important safety issue for asphalt materials. It is important to study the asphalt pyrolysis properties for selecting flame-retarding technology to improve the fire safety of asphalt materials. Differential scanning calorimeter–thermogravimetry–Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy was used to analyze the main pyrolysis temperature range, thermal effects, and emitted volatiles of saturates, aromatics, resins and asphaltenes (SARA) fractions. The microscopic morphology, the elemental compositions and their contents of each SARA fraction pyrolysis residues were tested by environmental scanning electron microscope–energy-dispersive spectrometer. The results indicate that main pyrolysis temperature range of SARA fractions is 250–550 °C, of which saturates have the lowest initial pyrolysis temperature, successively followed by aromatics, resins and asphaltenes. Also, SARA fraction pyrolysis processes are mainly endothermic reactions. The main volatiles in the pyrolysis of SARA fractions are alkanes and a small amount of CO, CO2 and SO2. Finally, the morphology and their elemental compositions of pyrolysis residues of SARA fractions are different. Among them, the proportion of O element is decreased from saturates to aromatics, resins and asphaltenes while the proportion of C is basically increased.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5
Fig. 6
Fig. 7
Fig. 8
Fig. 9

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Yang C, Xie J, Wu S, Amirkhanian S, Hu R. Investigation of physicochemical and rheological properties of SARA components separated from bitumen. Constr Build Mater. 2020;235: 117437.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  2. Yan QX, Zhang WL, Zhang C, Chen H, Dai YW, Zhou HY. Back analysis of water and earth loads on shield tunnel and structure ultimate limit state assessment: a case study. Arabian J Sci Eng. 2019;44:4839–53.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  3. Puente E, Lázaro D, Alvear D. Study of tunnel pavements behaviour in fire by using coupled cone calorimeter-FTIR analysis. Fire Saf J. 2016;81:1–7.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  4. Varfolomeev MA, Galukhin A, Nurgaliev DK, Kok MV. Thermal decomposition of Tatarstan Ashal’cha heavy crude oil and its SARA fractions. Fuel. 2016;186:122–7.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  5. Graca DCS, Cardoso G, Mothé CG. Thermal behavior of asphalt binder with modifying agents from industrial residues. J Therm Anal Calorim. 2019;138:3619–33.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  6. Cheng Y, Li TY, Hang A, Li Y, Cheng Y. Modeling pyrolysis of asphalt using chemical percolation devolatilization theory. Fuel. 2017;206:364–70.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  7. Shi HQ, Tao X, Jiang RL. Combustion mechanism of four components separated from asphalt binder. Fuel. 2017;192:18–26.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  8. Hayes E, Rots V. Documenting scarce and fragmented residues on stone tools: an experimental approach using optical microscopy and SEM-EDS. Archaeol Anthropol Sci. 2019;11:3065–99.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  9. Lindawati L, Mursal M, Afdhal A. Determination of mineral contents in meukek marble using XRD and SEM-EDS analysis. IOP Conf. Ser.: Mater. Sci. Eng. 2019; 506: 012023.

  10. Jiang YX, Gu XY, Zhou Z, Ni FJ, Dong Q. Laboratory observation and evaluation of asphalt blends of reclaimed asphalt pavement binder with virgin binder using SEM/EDS. Transp Res Rec. 2018;2672:69–78.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  11. Wu H, Sun BB, Li Z, Yu J. Characterizing thermal behaviors of various pavement materials and their thermal impacts on ambient environment. J Cleaner Prod. 2018;172:1358–67.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  12. Tan FT, Ma XQ, Feng C. Investigation on combustion of fire retardant board under different N2–O2 mixture gas atmospheres by using thermogravimetric analysis. Constr Build Mater. 2011;25:2076–84.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  13. Shi HQ, Xu T, Zhou P, Jiang RL. Combustion properties of saturates, aromatics, resins, and asphaltenes in asphalt binder. Constr Build Mater. 2017;136:515–23.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  14. Xia WJ, Xu T, Wang H. Thermal behaviors and harmful volatile constituents released from asphalt components at high temperature. J Hazard Mater. 2019;373:741–52.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  15. Zhang CC, Xu T, Shi HQ, Wang LL. Physicochemical and pyrolysis properties of SARA fractions separated from asphalt binder. J Therm Anal. 2015;122:241–9.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  16. Claudy P, Letoffe JM, King GN, Planche JP. Characterization of asphalt cements by thermomicroscopy and differential scanning calorimetry: correlation to classic physical properties. Fuel Sci Technol Int. 1992;10:735–65.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  17. Kok MV. Clay concentration and heating rate effect on crude oil combustion by thermogravimetry. Fuel Process Technol. 2012;96:134–9.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  18. Sugano M, Iwabuchi Y, Watanabe T, Kajita J, Iwata K, Hirano K. Relations between thermal degradations of SBS copolymer and asphalt substrate in polymer modified asphalt. Clean Technol Environ Policy. 2010;12:653–9.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  19. Yu XK, Zaumanis M, Dos Santos SD, Poulikakos LD. Rheological, microscopic, and chemical characterization of the rejuvenating effect on asphalt binders. Fuel. 2014;135:162–71.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  20. Zhao S, Pu WF, Yuan CD, Peng XQ, Zhang JZ, Wang LL, Emelianov DA. Thermal behavior and kinetic triplets of heavy crude oil and its SARA fractions during combustion by high-pressure differential scanning calorimetry. Energy Fuels. 2019;33:3176–86.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  21. Khan SA, Sarfraz S, Price D. TLC-FID calibration and accurate weight determination of SARA fractions in heavy crude oil. Pet Sci Technol. 2012;30:2401–6.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  22. Xu T, Wang Y, Xia WJ, Hu ZH. Effects of flame retardants on thermal decomposition of SARA fractions separated from asphalt binder. Constr Build Mater. 2018;173:209–19.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  23. Abdelshafy HI, Mansour MSM. A review on polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons: source, environmental impact, effect on human health and remediation. Egypt J Pet. 2016;25:107–23.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  24. Hao JH, Che YJ, Tian YY, Li DW, Zhang JH, Qiao YY. Thermal cracking characteristics and kinetics of oil sand bitumen and its SARA fractions by TG–FTIR. Energy Fuels. 2017;31:1295–309.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  25. Xu T, Huang XM. Study on combustion mechanism of asphalt binder by using TG–FTIR technique. Fuel. 2010;89:2185–90.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  26. Che YJ, Yang Z, Qiao YY, Zhang JH, Tian YY. Study on pyrolysis characteristics and kinetics of vacuum residue and its eight group-fractions by TG-FTIR. Thermochim Acta. 2018;669:149–55.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  27. Rakhmatullin IZ, Efimov SV, Tyurin VA, Al-Muntaser AA, Klimovitskii AE, Varfolomeev MA, Klochkov VV. Application of high resolution NMR (1 H and 13 C) and FTIR spectroscopy for characterization of light and heavy crude oils. J Pet Sci Eng. 2018;168:256–62.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  28. Szykuła KM, Wicking C, Whitmarsh S, Creaser CS, Reynolds JC. Characterization of crude oil and its saturate, aromatic, and resin fractions by high -field asymmetric waveform ion mobility spectrometry-high-resolution mass spectrometry. Energy Fuels. 2018;32:11310–6.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 51978340), Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province (BK20210618), The Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Higher Education Institutions of China (21KJB580003) and Jiangsu Provincial Department of Education for the Qing Lan Project.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Civil Engineering, Nanjing Forestry University, 159 Longpan Road, Nanjing, 210037, Jiangsu, China

    Siwen Wang, Tao Xu & Wenjing Xia

Authors
  1. Siwen Wang
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Tao Xu
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Wenjing Xia
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Contributions

SW contributed to data curation, investigation, roles/writing—original draft, and formal analysis. TX was involved in conceptualization, supervision, funding acquisition and project administration. WX contributed to methodology, writing—review and editing, resources and validation

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Tao Xu or Wenjing Xia.

Ethics declarations

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Additional information

Publisher's Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Rights and permissions

Springer Nature or its licensor holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Wang, S., Xu, T. & Xia, W. Pyrolysis properties of four SARA fractions in asphalt. J Therm Anal Calorim 147, 14143–14153 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10973-022-11611-1

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10973-022-11611-1

Keywords

Search

Navigation