A team of international researchers has developed a simple membrane that could make crude oil refining much more energy efficient.
Instead of relying only on high-temperature heating, the new technology can separate crude oil at room temperature, potentially reducing energy use, costs, and greenhouse gas emissions.
The research was led by scientists at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) in partnership with researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology in the United States.
Their findings were published in the journal Nature.
Crude oil is one of the world’s most important natural resources.
It is used to make fuels such as gasoline, diesel, and jet fuel, but it is also the starting material for plastics, packaging, clothing, medicines, and many everyday products.
Before crude oil can be used, it must be separated into different parts, a process known as refining.
For more than 100 years, oil refineries have mainly relied on distillation. In this process, crude oil is heated to temperatures above 350°C until it turns into vapor. As the vapor cools, different liquids are collected at different temperatures. Although this method works well, it requires huge amounts of energy.
Worldwide, crude oil distillation uses about 1,100 terawatt-hours of electricity every year. That is roughly equal to the yearly electricity production of about 130 large nuclear power plants. The process also creates large amounts of carbon dioxide, making it one of the biggest sources of greenhouse gas emissions in the oil refining industry.
The new membrane offers a very different approach. Instead of heating the oil, researchers allow crude oil to flow through a porous membrane made from an inexpensive plastic called polyacrylonitrile, or PAN.
What surprised the researchers was that the crude oil actually improved the membrane during use. Normally, heavy oil molecules clog membranes, a problem known as fouling, which reduces performance. In this case, however, the heavy molecules settled inside the tiny pores of the membrane and naturally formed even smaller channels less than two nanometers wide. These tiny pathways allowed lighter oil components to pass through while blocking heavier ones.
As a result, the membrane successfully separated lighter products such as naphtha, gasoline, and kerosene from heavier oil fractions. The system also worked much faster than previous membrane technologies, delivering oil flow rates about 23 times higher while operating continuously for 28 days without losing performance.
One major advantage is that the membrane could be added to existing refineries without replacing current equipment. Researchers suggest using it as a first step before traditional distillation. Computer simulations showed this combination could reduce refinery energy use by 31.6%, lower carbon dioxide emissions by 37.6%, reduce cooling water use by 20.7%, and cut operating costs by 36%.
The technology may also have uses beyond oil refining. Scientists believe similar membranes could help recycle plastic waste into useful chemicals, recover valuable solvents used in battery manufacturing, purify medicines, and improve biofuel production.
The researchers now plan to improve the membrane’s long-term performance and scale it up for industrial use.
If successful, this simple technology could help make one of the world’s most energy-intensive industries cleaner, cheaper, and more sustainable while supporting global efforts to reduce carbon emissions.
