oil filtration membrane

the paper is believed to be the first report of a synthetic membrane specifically designed for the separation of crude oil and crude-oil fractions.

Membrane technology is already widely used in such applications as seawater desalination, but the complexity of petroleum refining has until now limited the use of membranes. To overcome that challenge, the research team developed a novel spirocyclic polymer that was applied to a robust substrate to create membranes able to separate complex hydrocarbon mixtures through the application of pressure rather than heat.

Membranes separate molecules from mixtures according to differences such as size and shape. When molecules are very close in size, that separation becomes more challenging. Using a well-known process for making bonds between nitrogen and carbon atoms, the polymers were constructed by connecting building blocks having a kinked structure to create disordered materials with built-in void spaces.

The team was able to balance a variety of factors to create the right combination of solubility—to enable membranes to be formed by simple and scalable processing—and structural rigidity—to allow some small molecules to pass through more easily than others. Unexpectedly, the researchers found that the materials needed a small amount of structural flexibility to improve size discrimination, as well as the ability to be slightly "sticky" toward certain types of molecules that are found abundantly in crude oil.

 including a new carbon-based molecular sieve membrane that could dramatically reduce the energy required to separate a class of hydrocarbon molecules known as alkyl aromatics.

 

 

정확한 원리는 모르겠다ㅎㅎ 논문 빡세게 읽으면 이해는 할 수 있겠지만 별로 하고 싶지 않다.

 

reference

N-Aryl Linked Spirocyclic Polymers for Membrane Separations of Complex Hydrocarbon Mixtures, Science (2020). DOI: 10.1126/science.aba9806