据油气新闻网站7月20日消息 来自埃克森美孚公司、乔治亚理工学院和伦敦帝国理工学院的科学家发表了一项联合研究报告，探讨了一种新的膜技术可能取得的突破，该技术可以减少与炼油相关的排放和能源强度。实验室测试表明，在未来的几年里，这种正在申请专利的膜可以用来取代炼油厂的一些热密集蒸馏。
这项研究的结果目前发表在国际同行评议期刊Science上。
埃克森美孚研究与工程公司负责研发的副总裁维杰·斯瓦鲁普表示：“通过与佐治亚理工学院和帝国理工学院等实力雄厚的学术机构合作，我们正不断致力于开发未来的低排放能源解决方案。”
斯瓦鲁普说：“受到反渗透技术的启发，反渗透技术将水净化的能量强度降低了10倍，我们决定研究使用新材料进行液体分离的方法，如果将这种新材料应用于工业规模，可以显著减少相关的温室气体排放。这是埃克森美孚正在研究的许多新材料之一，目的是降低我们业务中的能源强度和二氧化碳含量。”
研究成功地证明，汽油和喷气燃料的主要成分石脑油和煤油可以用压力代替热量从轻质原油中分离出来，与传统的基于热的蒸馏方法相比，显著降低了排放和能源消耗。
自2014年以来，科学家团队一直致力于寻找先进的隔膜，以分离轻质页岩原油，所用能源明显低于典型炼油工艺。在汽油和喷气燃料领域，研究小组开发的膜的效率是目前使用的最具选择性的商业膜的两倍。
王磊 摘译自 油气新闻
原文如下：
ExxonMobil collaboration signals breakthrough in membrane technology
Scientists from ExxonMobil, the Georgia Institute of Technology and Imperial College of London have published joint research on potential breakthroughs in a new membrane technology that could reduce emissions and energy intensity associated with refining crude oil. Laboratory tests indicate the patent-pending membrane could be used to replace some heat-intensive distillation at refineries in the years ahead.
Results of the research were published today in the international peer-reviewed journal, Science.
“Through collaboration with strong academic institutions like Georgia Tech and Imperial, we are constantly working to develop the lower-emissions energy solutions of the future," said Vijay Swarup, vice president of research and development at ExxonMobil Research and Engineering Company.
“Inspired by reverse osmosis technology that has reduced energy intensity tenfold for water purification, we decided to look into ways to use new materials for liquids separation, which if brought to industrial scale, could significantly reduce associated greenhouse gas emissions,” said Swarup. “This is one of many new materials ExxonMobil is researching to reduce energy intensity and CO 2 in our operations.”
The research successfully demonstrated that naphtha and kerosene—the primary components of gasoline and jet fuel—can be separated from light crude oil using pressure instead of heat, reducing emissions and energy consumption significantly compared to traditional, heat-based distillation methods.
Since 2014, the team of scientists has worked to identify advanced membranes to separate light shale crude oil using significantly less energy than used in typical refining processes. In the gasoline and jet fuel range, the membranes developed by the team are twice as effective as the most selective commercial membranes in use today.
