The supercritical deasphalting pilot plant was developed for application on upgrading of heavy petroleum fractions from vacuum distillation and molecular distillation. A method for deasphalting using supercritical fluid as solvent, which involves the separation of the vacuum residue in two fractions, i.e., deasphalted oil and asphaltenes, is put forward. The system is equipped with an extractor, a separator, a propane reservoir, valves, pumps, a refrigerating system, and temperature controllers. The stages and the modifications that resulted in the equipment final design are presented. The thermodynamic study of the phase equilibrium of the system propane-oil-asphalt was developed. This is an abstract of a paper presented at the 18th International Congress of Chemical and Process Engineering (Prague, Czech Republic 8/24-28/2008). Deo, M.D., Wang, C.J., Hanson, F.V., The solubility of carbon dioxide in tar sand bitumens: Experimental determination and modeling (1991) Ind. Eng. Chem. Res., 30 (3), pp. 532-536McHugh, M., Krukonis, V., (1994) Supercritical Fluid Extraction- Principles and Practice, , Butterworths-Heinemann, BostonMendes, M.F., Ferreira, C.Z., Pessoa, F.L.P., Deasphaltation of petroleum using supercritical propane (2005) 2 nd Mercosur Congress on Chemical Engineering, 4 nd Mercosur Congress on Process Systems Engineering, , Enpromer, Costa Verde - Brazil. August, 2005Meyers, R.A., (2004) Handbook of Petroleum Refining Process, , McGraw-Hill, New YorkZhang, L., Greenfield, M.L., Molecular orientation in model asphalts using molecular simulation (2007) Energy & Fuels, 21, pp. 1102-1111Wilson, R.E., Keith, P.C., Haylett, R.E., Liquid-propane use in dewaxing, deasphalting, and refining heavy oils (1936) Ind. Eng. Chem., 28 (9), pp. 1065-1078