Polymer-based membranes developed at KAUST could enable greener and cheaper industrial separation approaches.
Polymer-based membranes developed at KAUST could enable greener and cheaper industrial separation approaches. Their stability and selectivity can be tuned by thermal crosslinking to separate simple hydrocarbon mixtures and complex crude oil fractions.
Separation processes, such as distillation and evaporation, are central to the chemical, pharmaceutical and petrochemical industries, but they are also energy intensive, expensive and polluting. Each year, crude oil refineries consume about one percent of the total energy used worldwide, and some refineries can even release up to 20 to 35 million tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2) into the atmosphere.
“Decreasing greenhouse gas emissions is a step forward in addressing climate change,” says lead author Stefan Chisca, a research scientist at KAUST. Membranes, with their low carbon footprint and ability to fit in small spaces, offer an attractive alternative to these heat-based processes and can reduce the CO2 emissions of crude oil refineries.
Polymer membranes are cheaper and easier to manufacture and adapt to large-scale processes than inorganic membranes. Yet, their low stability under harsh industrial conditions, such as elevated temperature and certain solvents, affects their performance.
Read more at King Abdullah University of Science & Technology (KAUST)
Image: An organic polymer membrane developed my KAUST scientists offers a greener and more sustainable way to separate hydrocarbon mixtures. (Credit: © 2022 KAUST; Anastasia Serin)
