Excess waxes in asphalts may contribute to poor binder cracking and rutting performance as well as to steric and physical hardening.

The Waxphaltene Determinator (WD) method is a high-performance liquid chromatography based separation, developed by WRI, to rapidly separate waxes and other fractions of asphalts and petroleum materials. For this separation, waxes and other asphalt components are precipitated onto a column at –24°C. A low molecular weight wax enriched fraction is then eluted with heptane while maintaining the column temperature at –24°C. The column is then heated to 60°C to melt the remaining waxes and elute them with the warm heptane. This fraction contains high molecular weight n-paraffin microcrystalline waxes.

Useful for -

  • Crude oil wax characterization

  • Waxy pipeline deposit fouling

  • Waxy asphalt

  • Wax dispersant additive performance and characterization

  • Asphalt and additive polymer characterization

Wax Characterization via Waxphaltene Determinator WD™

Implications for Commercial Wax Inhibitor Additive

Wax Cold Finger Test for Additive Performance

For more information, contact:

Joseph F. Rovani, Jr.
Project Coordinator
Manager of Analytical
Asphalt and Petroleum Technologies
(307) 721-2275
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Western Research Institute
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(307) 721-2011
(888) 463-6974 or (888) Info-WRI

You can contact WRI directly by phone (8 a.m. – 5 p.m. MST, Monday-Friday) at the numbers above.
Also, you are welcome to contact the appropriate WRI representative directly.

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