Gilsonite is very similar to coal, and since it is usually being extracted from natural mines, it is also called natural or mineral bitumen. If you want to get acquainted with gilsonite features in more detail, stay tuned and read this article from Nikan West website the gilsonite producer in Iran.
Details about Gilsonite features
Gilsonite or natural bitumen , is a mineral that is very similar in appearance to coal. Because of this feature, miners often confuse this substance with coal.
There are more than a hundred different types of coal in the world; however, Gilsonite is only similar in appearance and differs greatly in chemical properties and features. Simply put, coal is being formed by decomposing thousands of years of plant residues; meanwhile, Gilsonite is made up of thousands of years of animal remains.
The primary ingredient in Gilsonite is crude oil. In fact, the crude oil in underground mines has lost its volatile material over thousands of years due to pressure and has become a thick, bituminous material. It is a black substance with a shiny and, of course, very brittle surface, which today is called Gilsonite based on the name of its discoverer.
In fact, Mr. Samuel Gilson was the first discoverer of this substance and its special properties who registered this invention and then a company called American Gilsonite, and became the first supplier company in the United States. Since then, this substance has been called Gilsonite all over the world.
Introduction to the Gilsonite features
Gilsonite Powder has special properties that make it valuable. In summary, this substance is a combination of 100 different elements; and it can be well combined with more than 160 external elements.
Gilsonite also has a softness rate of 148 to 240 Celsius degrees. This means that at this temperature it becomes almost liquid. Finally, the permeability of Gilsonite is 4 hundred millimeters. These properties have led to the use of this material in various industries.
This substance is finally used after extraction in the form of lumps or powders that are dark brown to black in color. The first modern feature of this material was that it was insulated against water and moisture penetration. For this reason, it was first used to insulate wooden boats. However, after that, the variety of applications became much greater. Of course, they have been used as fuel.
Applications of natural bitumen
Gilsonite’s price is lower than its refined bitumen due to its mineral content. For this reason, the most common use is to replace it with refined bitumen.
Today, the simplest use of this material is to use it as a fuel for furnace in the form of lumps. In a more advanced stage, this material is used to increase the quality of refined bitumen, increase the quality of asphalt, create insulation in various industries, ink production, and so on. For example, the application of this material in the isogum production increases its positive properties, such as temperature resistance, low temperature flexibility, prevention of fractures, reduction of lubrication at high temperatures, and so on.
Beyond this, Gilsonite or natural bitumen is a very important raw material in the production of drilling mud. Drilling mud is a material that plays a key role in large drilling industries, including the oil industry, in drilling deep wells. This fluid is used to control wells, remove wells, and maintain well health and drilling.
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