OVERVIEW
Trinidad
Lake Asphalt is a natural product from the famous Asphalt or
“Pitch” Lake located in Trinidad, West Indies. It is perhaps
the largest natural asphalt deposit in the world. It began to
be of commercial importance about the middle of the nineteenth
century and has been worked actively since the first lease in
1888. Its use has extended to all parts of the world for road
and airport runway paving with some use in specialized industrial
applications.
Trinidad
Lake Asphalt, in its crude form is more accurately referred
to as Trinidad Natural Asphalt but is also known by the terms
Dried Asphalt (DA), Epure and Pitch.
Trinidad Natural Asphalt is a complex emulsion of water,
gas, bitumen and mineral matter.
The
refining operations is essentially on of dehydration, carried
out by heating the crude asphalt to high temperatures, below
flash point, in large tanks (or ‘stills’) fitted with coils
for high pressure steam.
After screening, the Trinidad Lake Asphalt is currently
poured into hardboard drums for dispatch, this form of package
will soon be replaced with the installation of the company’s
TLA Pelletization Plant.
#1
bitumen modifier
Although
the bitumen or asphalt included in paving mixtures rarely exceeds
10% of the total, it is the most important factor of the mixture.
Its function is to bind together the particles of aggregate
comprising the pavement and if it is unsatisfactory in this
capacity disintegration will set in and the pavement will fail.
Thus the ‘quality’ of the bituminous component becomes a measure
of the ultimate life of the pavement, and the assessment of
this attribute is of the greatest importance.
Fortunately,
the engineer has at his disposal what is perhaps the only master
test, namely, that of actual service and in this respect, the
history of Trinidad Lake Asphalt as a paving material extends
back over 100 years. No other similar bituminous material has
been subjected to such varied environments in all parts of the
world for such a span of years. Its reputation is built upon
a record of long life combined with low maintenance costs that
has not been equaled.
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