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

在油砂工业的沥青提取或升级过程中被丢弃的沥青质通常具有极低或零价值。沥青质是一类由稠合芳环、环烷烃环和脂肪链组成的分子。沥青质增值的传统智慧是将沥青质分子破碎成较轻的馏分用于燃料应用，这是资本密集型过程并产生相当大的GHG排放。相反，拟议的项目旨在开发一种绿色、可扩展和经济的工艺，将从沥青中分离的沥青质转化为市场价值高达约50美元/克的石墨烯类碳纳米材料。沥青质作为碳材料的原料，其芳香环的存在使石墨结构形成过程中C-C键的重构需求最小化。该项目开发的沥青质“升级”技术将为加拿大油砂工业提供高附加值的沥青质解决方案。与广泛使用的化学气相沉积（CVD）方法和石墨剥离方法相比，拟议研究的成功部署使石墨烯类碳的大规模生产成本显着降低。

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.**