Low-cost process of converting asphaltene into valuable graphene-like materials

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Asphaltenes rejected in bitumen extraction or upgrading processes in oil sands industry usually has extremely low or zero value. Asphaltenes are a class of molecules consisting of condensed aromatic rings, naphthenic rings and aliphatic chains. A traditional wisdom of value -adds for asphaltene is to break the asphaltene molecules into lighter fractions for fuel application, which is capital intensive process and generates considerable GHG emissions. Instead, the proposed project is aimed to develop a green, scalable and economic process of converting asphaltenes separated from bitumen into graphene-like carbon nanomaterials with a market value up to ~$50/g. As feedstock to make carbon materials, the aromatic nucleus in asphaltene become an essential advantage: it minimizes the C-C bonds reconstruction requirements in the formation of the graphitic structure. The proposed asphaltene "upgrading" technology developed in the project will provide Canada's oil sands industry with a high value-added solution of asphaltene. The successful deployment of proposed research enables the large-scale production of graphene-like carbons at significantly lower cost compared to the widely used chemical vapor deposition (CVD) method and graphite-exfoliation method.