An international research team led by Professor Dong-Yeun Koh of KAIST, working with Professor Ryan Lively’s group at Georgia Tech, has demonstrated a simple, low-cost membrane that can separate lighter crude oil components at room temperature without heating. According to a report by SciTechDaily on the study published in Nature on June 24, 2026, process simulations indicate that pairing this KAIST crude oil membrane with conventional distillation could reduce energy use by 31.6%.
Standard refinery distillation, a century-old method, heats crude oil above 350°C (662°F) to vaporize the mixture and then cools the vapor to recover fractions used in transportation fuels, plastics, packaging, textiles, and other consumer goods. Globally, crude oil distillation uses roughly 1,100 terawatt-hours of energy per year - comparable to the continuous annual output of 130 gigawatt-scale nuclear power plants.
Simulations of the new process show that pretreating crude oil with the membrane prior to distillation could yield multiple operational reductions:
- Energy consumption reduced by 31.6%
- Carbon dioxide emissions cut by 37.6%
- Cooling water usage lowered by 20.7%
- Operating costs reduced by 36%
SciTechDaily notes that because refining costs affect the price of fuels and everyday products, and as cost pressures rise across global petrochemical markets, demand for more efficient separation methods has grown.
How Oil Fouling Creates Separation Channels
Building membranes capable of molecularly precise separation has typically required ultrathin surface coatings, which increase manufacturing costs and carry a risk of defects when scaled up. Instead, the researchers ran crude oil through bare porous polyacrylonitrile (PAN), an inexpensive and chemically stable polymer already common in industrial membranes.
As crude oil flowed through the bare PAN material, heavy hydrocarbons selectively deposited along the pore walls. This buildup - known as membrane fouling, which normally degrades filter performance - gradually narrowed the pores into separation channels smaller than 2 nanometers. Lighter fractions such as naphtha, gasoline, and kerosene flowed through quickly, while the membrane held back heavier molecules.
This study reveals a new scientific principle in which a membrane interacts with a complex mixture and spontaneously forms its own separation channels. Working with real crude oil supplied by HD Hyundai Oilbank allowed us to validate the technology under conditions relevant to industrial operation.
Professor Dong-Yeun Koh, KAIST
In testing, the bare PAN membrane delivered crude oil permeation rates roughly 23 times higher than previously reported state-of-the-art crude oil membranes, while maintaining stable performance over 28 consecutive days.
Refinery Retrofits and Future Applications
Because the system could be installed in existing refineries as a modular filtration unit, it could reduce the need to replace major equipment. “One of the key challenges facing membrane systems for crude oil separation was the low productivities of the membrane units - the PAN membranes with their surprising separation mechanism - dramatically increase the productivity of the membrane unit, to the point where industry should seriously consider adopting the technology,” Lively said.
If deployed across South Korea’s refining and petrochemical sector, the researchers estimate the membrane technology could cut annual greenhouse gas emissions by about 10 million metric tons, matching the yearly emissions of roughly four million internal combustion vehicles.
Co-first authors Dr. Jihoon Choi and Dr. Hyeokjun Seo of KAIST said the team aims to precisely control this spontaneous pore-constriction phenomenon to build a membrane platform for the entire refining process, as well as for plastic recycling, biofuel purification, and other sustainable chemical processes supporting carbon neutrality. Proposed potential uses include purifying pyrolysis oil produced by thermally breaking down waste plastics, recovering solvents in battery manufacturing, and pharmaceutical purification.
Co-corresponding author Professor Jae W. Lee of KAIST added that the team hopes to expand adoption across the refining and petrochemical industries by advancing large-area membrane modularization and long-term operational reliability. The research Paper, co-authored by Jihoon Choi, Hyeokjun Seo, Minyong Lee, Woong-Chul Shin, Jaemin Choi, Keonwoo Choi, Min-Jun Jang, Sung Gap Im, Jae W. Lee, Ryan P. Lively, and Dong-Yeun Koh, was supported by South Korea’s Ministry of Science and ICT through the Basic Research Program for Outstanding Early-Career Researchers and the Engineering Research Center (ERC) Program.
This article was written by AI from reporting by scitechdaily.com.
