‘A materials breakthrough’: membranes to separate crude oil could slash energy costs

Three teams have developed membranes that can efficiently separate hydrocarbons in crude oil. These materials are scalable, can work under industrial conditions and help reduce the energy demand and carbon dioxide emissions compared with conventional methods. ‘Membrane-based hydrocarbon fractionation is [now] moving from a promising idea toward a more practical technology,’ explains Sheng Guo at Nanjing University in China, who wasn’t involved with any of these projects.

Fractional distillation – which involves heating and siphoning off hydrocarbons based on their boiling points – is the method of choice to separate crude oil. The process accounts for around 1% of the world’s global energy use, with approximately 11% of the energy extracted from oil needed for this process. This method also emits more than 160 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalents annually .

‘Membranes [however] can separate molecules by size, shape and chemical affinity, not only by boiling point,’ says Guo. Estimates suggest that using membranes to separate hydrocarbons could reduce the energy required by up to 90%.