US engineers invent molecular membrane to cut crude oil emissions by 90%
MIT adapts desalination tech to filter crude oil, offering a greener, scalable alternative to energy-intensive refining.
The importance of crude oil cannot be overstated in modern life. It powers vehicles, heats homes, and fuels industries. Yet this process is one of the planet’s largest energy drains.
Roughly 1 percent of global energy use goes into separating crude oil into gasoline, diesel, and heating oil. That, in turn, generates about 6 percent of the world’s CO₂ emissions, mostly from the intense heat required to boil oil and separate it by boiling points.
Now, MIT engineers have developed a groundbreaking membrane that can filter crude oil components by their molecular size, potentially replacing energy-hungry heat-based methods.
The advance could reshape how the world processes oil and dramatically cut related emissions.
A new approach to oil separation
MIT’s team created a thin polymer membrane that sieves oil compounds based on shape and size, rather than boiling points. This shift could reduce the energy required for separation by up to 90 percent.
“This is a whole new way of envisioning a separation process,” said Zachary P. Smith, associate professor of chemical engineering at MIT and senior author of the study.