Fast, selective, scalable—and ready for industry
For over a century, the refining of crude oil has been inseparable from the brute force of heat — a method that works, but at enormous energetic cost. A team of researchers from Queen Mary University of London, University College London, and Nanyang Technological University has now developed polymer membranes capable of separating hydrocarbons with both speed and precision, bypassing thermal distillation's hunger for energy. By locking nanoscale pores into place during the membrane's formation, they solved a problem that had frustrated materials scientists for decades. The result is a technology that may quietly begin to change how the world's refineries — and eventually its pharmaceutical and chemical industries — do their most demanding work.
- Thermal distillation has consumed roughly one percent of all global energy for over a century, and no viable membrane alternative has ever survived contact with real crude oil — until now.
- Previous polymer membranes would swell and lose their molecular selectivity when exposed to hydrocarbon mixtures, forcing engineers to choose between speed and precision but never both.
- The PLIM breakthrough — crosslinking the polymer structure during formation rather than after — locks nanoscale pores in place before swelling can occur, achieving ten times the permeance of existing membranes while removing 99.8% of heavy hydrocarbons and 93% of sulphur compounds.
- Crucially, the membranes can be manufactured using existing roll-to-roll industrial processes, integrated into standard spiral-wound modules already found in refineries, and have demonstrated stable performance over 30 days of continuous operation.
- The technology is now moving toward deployment, with researchers exploring greener manufacturing solvents and hybrid integration with existing refinery infrastructure — and eyeing applications in pharmaceuticals, chemicals, and bio-based feedstock processing.
For more than a century, separating crude oil into usable fractions has meant one thing: heat. Thermal distillation works reliably, but it consumes roughly one percent of all energy used globally. Membranes have long promised a more efficient alternative, but in practice they always failed — swelling when exposed to hydrocarbon mixtures, their pores expanding until their ability to distinguish between molecules collapsed. Scientists could achieve speed or selectivity, but not both.
The team behind the new breakthrough — drawn from Queen Mary University of London, University College London, and Nanyang Technological University — solved this by rethinking the moment of membrane formation itself. Their polymers of locked intrinsic microporosity, or PLIMs, are stabilized by introducing a crosslinking agent during formation rather than after, freezing the nanoscale pores in their optimal configuration before swelling can take hold.
The results were striking. Tested against synthetic and real Arabian Extra Light crude oil, the membranes achieved ten times the permeance of the best existing alternatives while removing 99.8 percent of heavy hydrocarbons and 93 percent of sulphur compounds. Applied to refinery streams like virgin naphtha, they cleanly separated light hydrocarbons for fuel from heavier fractions destined for plastics and chemicals — at flow rates comparable to commercial desalination membranes.
Equally important is the path to scale. The membranes can be produced using roll-to-roll manufacturing, formed into sheets over a meter wide, and fitted into the spiral-wound modules already standard in refineries worldwide. Thirty days of continuous testing confirmed stable performance, moving the technology from laboratory promise to industrial readiness.
The implications reach beyond oil. As the energy transition unfolds, the need for efficient hydrocarbon separation will persist across pharmaceuticals, chemical manufacturing, solvent recovery, and bio-based feedstocks. The same pore-locking principle could reshape how multiple industries handle their most energy-intensive processes — and the researchers are already exploring greener solvents and hybrid deployment strategies to carry it forward.
For more than a century, oil refineries have relied on the same basic method to separate crude into usable fractions: heat it. Thermal distillation works, but it devours energy—accounting for roughly one percent of all energy consumed globally. A team of international researchers has now developed a membrane technology that could do the same job using a fraction of that power, potentially reshaping how the world processes hydrocarbons.
The challenge has always been materials. Membranes, in theory, offer a far more efficient path than distillation. But they've never quite worked in practice. When exposed to crude oil and its complex mixtures of hydrocarbons, polymer membranes would swell, their carefully engineered pores would expand, and their ability to discriminate between molecules would collapse. Scientists could achieve either speed or selectivity—rarely both. The gap between what was possible in the lab and what was needed in the refinery remained unbridged.
The breakthrough came from rethinking how the membranes are made. Researchers at Queen Mary University of London, working with colleagues at University College London and Nanyang Technological University, developed what they call polymers of locked intrinsic microporosity, or PLIMs. The key insight was timing: by introducing a crosslinking agent during membrane formation rather than after, the team could stabilize the polymer structure before it had a chance to swell. This locked the nanoscale pores in their optimal configuration, preserving the tiny channels that make molecular separation possible while still allowing hydrocarbons to flow through at remarkable speed.
When tested with synthetic crude oil, the PLIM membranes performed at levels that would have seemed impossible just months earlier. They showed ten times higher permeance—the rate at which liquid passes through—than the best existing membranes, while maintaining the selectivity needed to separate molecules that differ only slightly in size. In tests using real Arabian Extra Light crude oil, the membranes removed 99.8 percent of hydrocarbons heavier than 15 carbon atoms and reduced sulphur-containing compounds by 93 percent, a critical step in protecting the catalysts and equipment downstream. When applied to refinery streams like virgin naphtha, they efficiently separated light hydrocarbons suitable for fuel from heavier fractions destined for plastics and chemicals, all at flow rates comparable to commercial desalination membranes.
What matters as much as the performance is the path to deployment. The researchers demonstrated that these membranes can be manufactured at industrial scale using roll-to-roll processing, the same technique used to produce films and sheets across countless industries. They created sheets over a meter wide and integrated them into standard spiral-wound modules—the kind already installed in refineries worldwide. Long-term testing showed stable performance over 30 days of continuous operation, suggesting the technology is ready for real industrial use, not just laboratory demonstration.
The implications extend well beyond crude oil refining. As the global energy system transitions toward lower-carbon alternatives, demand for fuels, chemicals, solvents, and hydrocarbon-derived materials will persist for years. Improving the efficiency of existing separation processes is therefore essential to reducing emissions during this transition. The same pore-locking concept could be applied to pharmaceutical manufacturing, chemical production, solvent recovery, and processing of emerging bio-based feedstocks. A single innovation in materials science could reshape how multiple industries approach one of their most energy-intensive operations.
The researchers are now exploring greener solvents for membrane manufacture and investigating how PLIM membranes could be deployed in hybrid processes alongside existing refinery infrastructure. What was once a theoretical possibility—fast, selective, scalable membrane-based separation in organic liquids—is now a technology ready for industry.
Citações Notáveis
The problem has been finding materials that are both fast and selective when exposed to real hydrocarbon mixtures.— Andrew Livingston, Professor of Chemical Engineering at Queen Mary University of London
The key was stabilising the structure before the polymer had a chance to swell, preserving the tiny pores that make molecular separation possible while still allowing hydrocarbons to flow through very quickly.— Dr Zhiwei Jiang, Head of Membrane Research at Exactmer
A Conversa do Hearth Outra perspectiva sobre a história
Why has this problem been so hard to solve? Membranes have existed for decades.
The core issue is a materials contradiction. The polymers that work best for separation have tiny pores, but those pores collapse when exposed to oil. You get selectivity or speed, not both. It's like a sieve that either lets everything through or blocks everything.
And the solution was to lock the pores before they could swell?
Exactly. By timing the crosslinking during formation rather than after, the team stabilized the structure before the polymer had a chance to deform. It's a simple idea in hindsight, but it required understanding polymer dynamics at the molecular level.
What does a 10-fold improvement in permeance actually mean for a refinery?
It means the same separation happens ten times faster, or with a tenth of the membrane area. In a refinery running 24/7, that translates directly to energy savings and smaller equipment footprints. And they're removing 99.8 percent of heavy hydrocarbons—that's not just good, that's transformative.
Can these membranes actually be manufactured at scale, or is this still a lab achievement?
They've already proven it. They made sheets over a meter wide using standard industrial roll-to-roll processing and fitted them into existing module designs. The technology isn't waiting for new infrastructure—it works with what refineries already have.
What happens next?
They're testing it in real refinery conditions and exploring how to integrate it alongside existing processes. The real question now is how quickly the industry adopts it. The technology works. The manufacturing is proven. It's a matter of will and investment.