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Zhang Tong

Chinese scientists say they have devised a new technique for refining oil that cuts the amount of energy consumed during the process by roughly 90 per cent.
If the technology used in the study could be scaled up for industry, it would not only greatly reduce production costs and emissions, but also make the process more precise and boost product value.
Crude oil cannot be turned directly into petrol or plastics.
Instead, refineries must separate it into different parts before each one can be put to good use – one of the most energy-hungry parts of the process.
The traditional way this is done is through distillation, which relies on tiny differences in boiling point and heating the mixture over and over so it vaporises and condenses – a process that uses a lot of energy and is relatively imprecise.
The new process operates at the molecular level to select different compounds and send them to the production line that suits them best, thereby maximising the use of resources.
The technique, described by the researchers from the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics as “molecular refining”, uses a chemical membrane to separate the different molecules found in crude oil.
These metal organic framework membranes act as a kind of molecular sieve, with specially designed pores and surface properties to perform different tasks.
The process, known as cascade membrane separation, starts by screening the molecules for size.
Although the molecules look similar, their sizes differ by about 0.1 nanometre. A specially made membrane acts as a type of very fine sieve that separates the smaller straight-chain and single-branched alkanes that are used to produce ethylene.
In the second stage, the remaining molecules are even closer in size, with differences of less than 0.01nm.


This stage involves another membrane that uses its surface chemistry to “recognise” molecules and separate chemical aromatics, which are essential intermediates for making plastics, resins and fibres, from the multi-branched alkanes and cycloalkanes that are used to make petrol.
The team used a tannic acid micro-etching method to continuously tune the membranes’ pore size and surface chemistry to perform the different sorting tasks.
When the two membranes were used in series, the team tested a simulated light naphtha mixture containing 15 components.
In the lab, it was separated into three groups of high-value products with a recovery rate of between 85 and 90 per cent, the study said.
More importantly, because the oil no longer needed repeated heating, vaporisation and condensation, the process used around 91 per cent less energy than the traditional distillation process.
In their paper, published last month in National Science Review, the researchers wrote: “The proposed graded sorting paradigm thus offers a novel platform for petrochemical refining, maximising value extraction while greatly improving energy efficiency.”
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The new process, which works at a molecular level, may also produce higher value end-products, ranging from petrol to plastics


The new process, which works at a molecular level, may also produce higher value end-products, ranging from petrol to plastics.


Chinese scientists develop new oil refining method that may cut energy use by 90%

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}The new process, which works at a molecular level, may also produce higher value end-products, ranging from petrol to plastics

The new process, which works at a molecular level, may also produce higher value end-products, ranging from petrol to plastics