and a solvated pitch phase separation of the solvent phase and the solvated pitch phase can be accomplished simply by allowing the mixture to stand without agitation while this may be an adequate separation technique for batch processing techniques it is envisioned that mechanical separators such as centrifugal separators may also be used to effect separation in continuous process set ups separation may be accomplished in the line or by passing the solvent pitch mixture into a mechanical separator or by passing the mix into suitable container or settling tank in which separation can occur once the mixing of the extracted solvent pitch mixture stops the contents of the sealed container will phase separate into an upper solvent phase and a lower pitch phase if permitted to cool sufficiently the pitch phase will thicken and eventually harden the thickening and solidifying temperatures can be determined by occasional movement of the paddles or other stirring means within the vessel the pitch can be readily recovered after cooling to a solid however it is envisioned that the pitch could be recovered after phase separation has occurred but while the pitch is still in a liquid form it is further envisioned that if removed from the container while molten the pitch could be formed into fibers and other artifacts directly thus eliminating the need to remelt the pitch melting behavior of the pitches described in this invention were observed while heating the pitches on a microscope hot stage under inert atmosphere at a heating rate of 5.