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  • RESEARCH HIGHLIGHT

Ultra-thin films filter crude oil — no energy-hog refinery needed

Membranes only a few dozen nanometres thick sieve hydrocarbons from thick crude at a rapid clip.
Crude oil from oil well.

Crude oil is a brew of many hydrocarbons, but useful components can be separated from the mix with a newly developed porous membrane. Credit: Alamy

An ultrathin membrane can separate crude oil into its components using much less energy than today’s refining methods1.

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Nature 610, 234 (2022)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-022-03117-5

References

  1. Li, S. et al. Science 377, 1555–1561 (2022).

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