A refinery in a thin film: A thin polymer membrane can separate industrial organic solvent mixtures through reverse osmosis

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Abstract


Many chemicals, pharmaceuticals, and petrochemicals must be isolated from a mixture of various molecules. Traditional separation processes such as distillation not only require a great deal of energy but also generate large amounts of greenhouse gases (1). An attractive alternative is reverse osmosis that filters liquid solutions through a semipermeable, thin membrane by applying pressure. This method has been broadly used to separate water from salts. However, it is a challenge to create membranes that can isolate molecules from a complex hydrocarbon mixture such as crude oil. On page 839 of this issue, Lee et al. (2) report the fabrication of a reverse osmosis membrane that can separate molecules from industrially relevant organic solvents. This could potentially replace energy-intensive distillation processes in industry.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)819
Number of pages1
JournalScience
Volume388
Issue number6749
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 22 May 2025

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