New MIT Membrane Cuts Oil Refining Energy by 90%, Slashing Carbon Emissions
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📰 The quick summary: MIT engineers developed a new membrane that filters crude oil by molecular size instead of heat, potentially reducing energy consumption in oil refining by 90% and cutting carbon emissions significantly.
📈 One key stat: The new filtration technology could slash energy usage in crude oil separation by approximately 90%, helping reduce the 6% of global CO2 emissions currently generated by traditional oil refining processes.
💬 One key quote: “This is a whole new way of envisioning a separation process. Instead of boiling mixtures to purify them, why not separate components based on shape and size? The key innovation is that the filters we developed can separate very small molecules at an atomistic length scale,” says Zachary P. Smith, an associate professor of chemical engineering at MIT.
1️⃣ The big picture: Engineers at MIT have developed a revolutionary membrane that separates crude oil components by molecular size rather than by heating. Traditional crude oil refining is one of the most energy-intensive industrial processes, responsible for about 6% of global carbon emissions. This new polyimine membrane uses interfacial polymerization – a technique already common in water desalination – to create filters that efficiently separate hydrocarbons without swelling when exposed to oil. The membrane can filter mixtures of naphtha, kerosene, and diesel by capturing molecules according to their size, potentially transforming the entire oil refining industry.
2️⃣ Why is this good news: This technology offers an alternative to the traditional energy-intensive distillation process that has remained largely unchanged for decades. By filtering oil components based on molecular size rather than boiling points, refineries can dramatically reduce their energy consumption and carbon footprint. The membrane is produced using manufacturing techniques already established in the water desalination industry, making widespread adoption more feasible. Similar to how reverse osmosis reduced desalination energy by 90% since the 1970s, this innovation could drive comparable efficiency gains in petroleum processing while maintaining the quality of fuel products.
3️⃣ What’s next: Researchers suggest that industrial implementation could involve a series of these filters in a cascade system to generate higher concentrations of desired products at each step. The manufacturing process appears scalable since it uses interfacial polymerization, already widely employed in water purification. Further development will focus on adapting existing production lines to mass-produce these specialized filtering membranes.
Read the full story here: SciTechDaily – New MIT Tech Could Cut Oil Refining Energy by 90%
