Bitumen Emulsion (Cationic CSS-1, CRS-2, RS/SS, K1-60/K1-70)

Cationic road emulsions by residue, viscosity and setting rate, in drums, IBCs and flexitanks

A bitumen emulsion is bitumen dispersed in water with a cationic emulsifier so it can be sprayed or mixed cold and break on the stone, and every grade name says two things: how fast it breaks and how much bitumen is in it. ASTM D2397 covers seven cationic grades — CRS-1 and CRS-2 rapid-setting, CMS-2 and CMS-2h medium-setting, CSS-1 and CSS-1h slow-setting and CQS-1h quick-setting — with residue by distillation at 57% minimum for CSS-1h and 65% minimum for CRS-2, Saybolt Furol viscosity of 20–100 s at 25°C for the slow-setting grades and 100–400 s at 50°C for CRS-2, and the h suffix marking a harder base bitumen. India's IS 8887 uses five grades: RS-1 (residue 60% min), RS-2 (67%), MS (65%), SS-1 (50%) and SS-2 (60%), with 24-hour storage stability of 1–2% maximum, residue on the 600 micron sieve of 0.05% maximum, positive particle charge and residue penetration bands of 60–150 dmm for the road grades, and the standard requires that within one year of manufacture the emulsion shows no undispersed bitumen after thorough mixing. East and Southern Africa still specify the K1 series inherited from BS 434-1, where the number is the nominal bitumen content: K1-40 for prime and dust control, K1-60 for surface dressing and patching, K1-70 for tack coat at spray rates of 0.25–0.70 l/m²; BS EN 13808 replaced BS 434-1 and gives the approximate equivalents C40 B 4, C60 B 3 and C69 B 3, and Kenya Standard KS 02-769 writes K1-60 as binder content 57% minimum, Engler viscosity 6–9 °E at 20°C, storage stability 2% maximum and 0.05% maximum on the 710 micron sieve. It is declared under HS 2715.00 as a bituminous mixture, not under 2713.20 with the base bitumen, and because it is half water the trade is short-haul: UN Comtrade 2024 export declarations under HS 2715 show Canada (0.20 million MT), Spain (0.17), Germany (0.15) and Belgium (0.15) as the largest exporters, all serving neighbours by road, which is why long-haul supply into East Africa and South Asia is a drum-and-IBC business.

The buyer is a road contractor or road authority depot doing tack coats, prime coats, surface dressing, slurry seal or cold patching, an asphalt plant without its own emulsion mill, or a distributor in a country with no local colloid mill, and the grade it asks for is the one in its road authority's specification, so a request for CSS-1h from a Gulf-specified project, SS-1 from an Indian PWD tender and K1-60 from a Kenyan or Tanzanian roads contract are three different emulsions from the same base bitumen. Emulsion is mostly water and it is perishable: it separates on standing, breaks if it freezes and should be kept between 5°C and 50°C, never below 2°C, and drums and IBCs rolled or inverted periodically to re-homogenise the bitumen phase, which is why the standards write a storage-stability test and a shelf-life clause and why the freight is a decision about pack rather than price. CBIL is a commodity brokerage company and brokers cationic emulsions from refinery-owned and independent emulsion plants against SGS or Intertek certification of residue by distillation or evaporation, viscosity, storage stability, sieve residue, particle charge and residue penetration at the filling point, to the grade sheet the buyer's road authority publishes. Supply is structured in new 200 kg steel drums, 1 MT IBC tanks and flexitanks for the buyer with a receiving tank, on FOB, CFR and CIF terms; hot-bulk vessel supply is for the base bitumen, not the emulsion. Send the grade designation and the standard it comes from, the quantity and the receiving arrangement, and we will match the plant and the pack to it.

Need the ship as well? Our chartering desk prices bitumen tanker and drummed bitumen freight on LaycanDesk.

Excluded origins are not offered, including product re-exported, blended or re-processed through a third country. Every lot moves with a certificate of origin naming the producing plant, mine or grower country, and nothing is quoted before the seller and loading point are known.