A continuous process for producing enhanced refinery feedstock and dry thermally-affected asphaltene solids from heavy hydrocarbon, said process comprising: (a) pre-heating the heavy hydrocarbon as a process fluid in a heater to a designed temperature; (b) moving the pre-heated process fluid to a single thermal conversion reactor with an overhead partial condenser to convert asphaltenes in the heavy hydrocarbon process fluid to produce a stream of non-condensable vapour and lighter liquid hydrocarbons, and a second stream of thermally-affected asphaltene-rich fractions from the process fluid; wherein the thermal conversion reactor process conditions are within the following parameters: (i) a uniform heat flux of between 22.1-37.9 kW/m 2 (7000-12000 BTU/hr. sq.ft.) introduced to the process fluid within the reactor; (ii) a sweep gas of between 4.8-19.3sm 3 of gas/m 3 of process fluid (20-80 scf/bbl (gas/process fluid)) is introduced to the process fluid within the reactor; (iii) residence time of the process fluid within the reactor of between 40-180 minutes; (iv) a substantially uniform temperature of the process fluid of between 357-413°C (675-775°F) in the reactor; and (v) a near atmospheric pressure of <345 kPa (<50 psig) in the reactor; (c) deasphalting the thermally-affected asphaltene rich fractions obtained from step (b) with a solvent extraction process into a stream of deasphalted oil and a second stream containing solid precipitated thermally-affected asphaltene; (d) separating dry precipitated thermally-affected asphaltene solids from the second stream obtained from step (c) in a vapour-solid separation unit which separates the asphaltene solids from the solvent vapour and gas remaining in the second stream obtained from step (c) using one or more forces, such as centrifugal, gravitational, and inertial, to give a dry, solid asphaltene which contains no more than 20% moisture, wherein said vapour-solid separation unit is selected from a settling chamber, baffle chamber or centrifugal collector; (e) the refinery feedstock comprising of at least one of the produced streams. (a) pre-heating the heavy hydrocarbon as a process fluid in a heater to a designed temperature; (b) moving the pre-heated process fluid to a single thermal conversion reactor with an overhead partial condenser to convert asphaltenes in the heavy hydrocarbon process fluid to produce a stream of non-condensable vapour and lighter liquid hydrocarbons, and a second stream of thermally-affected asphaltene-rich fractions from the process fluid; wherein the thermal conversion reactor process conditions are within the following parameters: (i) a uniform heat flux of between 22.1-37.9 kW/m 2 (7000-12000 BTU/hr. sq.ft.) introduced to the process fluid within the reactor; (ii) a sweep gas of between 4.8-19.3sm 3 of gas/m 3 of process fluid (20-80 scf/bbl (gas/process fluid)) is introduced to the process fluid within the reactor; (iii) residence time of the process fluid within the reactor of between 40-180 minutes; (iv) a substantially uniform temperature of the process fluid of between 357-413°C (675-775°F) in the reactor; and (v) a near atmospheric pressure of <345 kPa (<50 psig) in the reactor; (i) a uniform heat flux of between 22.1-37.9 kW/m 2 (7000-12000 BTU/hr. sq.ft.) introduced to the process fluid within the reactor; (ii) a sweep gas of between 4.8-19.3sm 3 of gas/m 3 of process fluid (20-80 scf/bbl (gas/process fluid)) is introduced to the process fluid within the reactor; (iii) residence time of the process fluid within the reactor of between 40-180 minutes; (iv) a substantially uniform temperature of the process fluid of between 357-413°C (675-775°F) in the reactor; and (v) a near atmospheric pressure of <345 kPa (<50 psig) in the reactor; (c) deasphalting the thermally-affected asphaltene rich fractions obtained from step (b) with a solvent extraction process into a stream of deasphalted oil and a second stream containing solid precipitated thermally-affected asphaltene; (d) separating dry precipitated thermally-affected asphaltene solids from the second stream obtained from step (c) in a vapour-solid separation unit which separates the asphaltene solids from the solvent vapour and gas remaining in the second stream obtained from step (c) using one or more forces, such as centrifugal, gravitational, and inertial, to give a dry, solid asphaltene which contains no more than 20% moisture, wherein said vapour-solid separation unit is selected from a settling chamber, baffle chamber or centrifugal collector; (e) the refinery feedstock comprising of at least one of the produced streams.