Researchers from the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology and the Georgia Institute of Technology have developed an inexpensive membrane filtration system that separates crude oil at room temperature, potentially transforming an industrial process responsible for high global energy consumption.
The findings, published in the scientific journal Nature, demonstrate that a simple, uncoated polymer material can achieve molecular separation without requiring the high-temperature heating stages traditionally used in oil refining.
Conventional oil refining relies heavily on atmospheric and vacuum distillation, a thermal process where crude oil is heated to temperatures exceeding 350 °C to evaporate and separate its components. According to data cited in the research, global crude oil distillation consumes approximately 1,100 terawatt-hours of energy annually. Researchers noted that this energy demand is equivalent to the annual electricity production of about 130 one-gigawatt nuclear power plants operating continuously.
Historically, membrane-based alternatives struggled with low productivities and required expensive, specialized coatings that were difficult to manufacture without defects on a large scale. To overcome these limitations, the KAIST and Georgia Tech team utilized a bare, porous polyacrylonitrile membrane. PAN is an inexpensive, chemically stable polymer commonly employed as a supporting material in industrial filtration systems.
During testing with real crude oil supplied by HD Hyundai Oilbank, the researchers observed an unexpected mechanism. As the complex hydrocarbon mixture flowed through the membrane, heavier molecules accumulated along the inner walls of the pores.
While such buildup is typically treated as problematic membrane fouling, in this instance it proved beneficial. The accumulation gradually narrowed the pore diameters to less than 2 nanometers, forming stable internal pathways that effectively separated lighter fractions—such as naphtha, gasoline, and kerosene—from heavier components.
The uncoated PAN membrane achieved crude oil permeation rates approximately 23 times higher than previously reported state-of-the-art crude oil membranes while maintaining stable performance for 28 consecutive days.
Because refineries would not need to completely replace their existing infrastructure, the modular filtration system could be installed as a pretreatment step before conventional distillation equipment. Computer simulations indicated that incorporating the membranes into the refining workflow could reduce energy consumption by 31.6%, decrease carbon dioxide emissions by 37.6%, lower cooling water usage by 20.7%, and cut operating costs by 36%.
Researchers emphasized that these figures represent projections from computer simulations rather than achieved measurements at commercial installations. Widespread adoption of the technology across South Korea's refining and petrochemical industries could prevent approximately 10 million tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions annually.
Our goal is to precisely control this spontaneous pore-constriction phenomenon and develop it into a membrane platform applicable to the entire refining process,
stated Dr. Jihoon Choi and Dr. Hyeokjun Seo of KAIST, the study’s co-first authors, as reported by europesays.com.
The research team also aims to expand the technology toward plastic recycling, biofuel purification, solvent recovery for battery production, pharmaceutical compound purification, and other sustainable chemical processes supporting carbon neutrality.
The study received financial support from Korea’s Ministry of Science and ICT through the Basic Research Program for Outstanding Early-Career Researchers and the Engineering Research Center Program. Moving forward, the research team plans to improve the production of large membrane modules and evaluate their operational reliability over longer periods.