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Polymer membrane separates hydrocarbons, offering alternative to distillation (www.chemistryworld.com)

submitted 3 weeks ago by obbeel@lemmy.eco.br to c/science@mander.xyz

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[–] lvxferre@mander.xyz 3 points 3 weeks ago (10 children)

Last time I heard about reverse osmosis it was about water purification, exploiting that water molecules are tiny and ions + organic molecules are bulky. I'm glad to see the tech finding its way into other processes though - specially oil refining, the current solution (fractional distillation) is basically "use lots of energy to boil it, then use even more energy to condensate it".

They achieve this using membranes produced by interfacial polymerisation. This technique, which traditionally involves dissolving the two monomers – one in water and one in an organic solvent – to form a crosslinked polymer at the interface, is therefore highly attractive for scalable production of hydrocarbon-separation membranes.

That's quite smart.

[–] acockworkorange@mander.xyz 5 points 3 weeks ago (9 children)

I'm not as confident. Refining columns work reliably for decades requiring just a couple trays being replaced every now and then. RO membranes are generally fickle, need a lot of babying and require complete replacement every couple years.

There's also energy integration opportunities in a refinery to use the "waste" heat to preheat feeds and of course the feeds precool the hot top stream. Being a highly commoditized market pushes companies to drive three bottom line down.

I think we'll only see meaningful impact by phasing out of fossil fuels, not making their manufacture incrementally more efficient.

[–] lvxferre@mander.xyz 2 points 3 weeks ago (8 children)

I'm aware some energy is recycled, and I do think we (humankind as a whole) need to phase fossil fuels out. But even then, we'll still need petrochemicals - and I'm hoping this sort of membrane eventually makes them cheaper, when used instead or alongside fractioning columns.

[–] Dark_Arc@social.packetloss.gg 2 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (1 children)

There's research into non-oil based polymers in Akron funded by the Biden administration (don't tell Trump) and Goodyear IIRC. So ... if that goes somewhere, maybe not.

[–] lvxferre@mander.xyz 2 points 3 weeks ago

I hope this research leads to the replacement of some oil-based polymers. And, additionally, I think we should decrease our reliance on industrial polymers, ~~my balls already have enough microplastics;~~ even if they come from a cleaner source, their presence in nature is problematic.

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