There is bitumen everywhere. Chances are, you got to the computer where you are reading this by walking over some bitumen. But where did it come from? How is it made? Read on to find out. |
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 Bitumen is a lot older than you think. Although now associated with roads and produced in large, complex, modern refineries belonging to enormous petrochemical companies (such as Shell), natural bitumen was found long before this, among the desert dunes of Arabia. Etymology The Romans called it gwitu-men (pertaining to pitch) or pixtu-men (bubbling pitch), converted, after the barbarian invasions to bitumen. The word passed into French, and then, after the Norman conquest of England in 1066, into English, where it was used interchangeably with tar for over a thousand years (though tar derives from coal, and bitumen from petroleum). |
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Early Uses
The earliest recorded use of something like bitumen was by the Sumerians, who ruled from the ancient city of Ur on the Euphrates river (near present-day Kuwait). There is evidence, too, that Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar used it for waterproofing and even as grouting for stone roads.
The use of bitumen spread further West, and the Bible records a bituminous substance (tar, asphalt or bitumen, depending on the translation) was used in building the Tower of Babel.
In 1595 Sir Walter Raleigh discovered a thick viscous lake in the jungles of Trinidad. This was to be the largest natural deposit of bitumen ever found and was used extensively until the mid 1970s.
In the late nineteenth century, however, bitumen began to be used for the major industrial uses common today, and with those began synthetic production. Shell began major bitumen production in the UK in 1920, after opening the Shell Haven refinery.
Today, Shell produces bitumen all over the world, and is at the forefront of research into new applications for this substance people have used since the dawn of civilization. |
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