Posted on 06/05/2025 5:57:05 AM PDT by Red Badger
Cool. Like desalination on steroids.
I long for the day that the influence of DJT policies eliminate such thinking and I can read an article absent such psychotic language.
Hold thy breath? Nay.
Besides, absent action by the worthless Congress, it will snap back like a coiled spring when he's gone.
Coffee filter applied to oil?
Interesting. I’d think it would make oil refineries a lot safer, too.
Interesting. If they can truly make this commercially viable in is a game-changet in the refining business.
And smaller...........................
Immensely so. The “cracking” unit in a refinery is subject to explosions on occasion.
And cheaper to build, probably. Whether cheaper to operate would likely depend on the cost and service life of the membranes.
“Whether cheaper to operate would likely depend on the cost and service life of the membranes.”....and Union contracts.................
How much heat and pressure are required to push the molecules through a membrane? What about impurities clogging the membrane? Because something works on a small scale does not make it feasible for commercial production.
The paper makes no mention of what types of crude oil this membrane cold be applied to. I’m not a petroleum engineer, but I’d think you’d have a hard time pushing medium, heavy, and extra-heavy crude oils through a membrane. It could be applicable to light crude oils, but these are only 15-20% of global reserves.
Early in my career, I burned “Bunker C” fuel which is the “bottoms” from the distillation process. After distillation, refineries use vacuum distillation to reduce the boiling point of “Residual Oil” and what comes out the bottom of that process is Bunker C. It’s nasty stuff, lots of sulfur and metals, and must be heated 24x7. Stop heating it and it freezes into a block of solid tar.
Heavy Oil (API < 22.3°): 25–30% (~430–520 billion barrels)
Driven by Venezuela (303 billion barrels, mostly heavy/extra-heavy) and Canada (171 billion barrels, oil sands). Smaller contributions from Mexico, Colombia, and Middle Eastern heavy fields (e.g., Iraq, Kuwait).
Medium Oil (API 22.3°–31.1°): 50–60% (~865–1,040 billion barrels)
Dominant in Saudi Arabia, Iran, Iraq, Russia, UAE, and Kuwait, where conventional fields produce medium crudes. This is the largest category due to the prevalence of these fields.
Light Oil (API > 31.1°): 15–20% (~260–345 billion barrels)
Significant in U.S. shale (tight oil), Saudi Arabia (Arabian Light/Extra Light), Libya, and Nigeria. Light oil’s share is growing with shale but remains smaller than medium.
Usefulness would depend on how long the separation process takes. E.g., by how much does this change the amount of time it takes to produce a barrel?
Thank you for pointing this out. It is exactly what I was going to say.
There is a big difference in refining Light Sweet Crude and Heavy Sulfur Crude. To the point that many countries/companies just can not do it cost effectively. Which is why the refineries in the Gulf coast of the USA do so much of it. It is also why we IMPORT this oil from other countries. Then export distillants like diesel.
They used to say that the crude from Quaker State was so light and pure you could pump it right out of the ground and put it into your engine. Arnold Palmer wouldn’t put anything else in his tractor.
Not so much for the stuff coming from Venezuela and the oil sands of Alberta.
Three decades ago an oil refinery was proposed to be built near Mobile, Arizona. Unfortunately, the Greenies put the kibosh on it under the pretext of the danger of pollution from the refinery.
Would this technology allay those fears?
No. They fear the product, not the process....................
Yes, the worst of the worst are:
Orinoco oil, from Venezuela’s Orinoco Belt, is primarily extra-heavy crude oil or bitumen. It is not extracted as a solid but as a highly viscous liquid, often resembling tar. Its high viscosity and density (API gravity typically 8–10°)
Athabasca Oil Sands from Alberta are bitumen mixed with sand, clay, and water.
“potentially allowing it to be scaled up for widespread use”
Journalists are crap. Completely useless after the 24 hr. news cycle was adopted. They have to make S up and speculate to produce
The question I would ask is cost of conversion of heavy crude fractation.
Also, how long would the filters last before plant would have to be taken down to clean/replace filters.
In Texas we crack a lot of heavies from West Texas and other countries.
Very cool. I wondering how much the filtration process cost for filters, pump pressure, unusable waste etc. This process isn’t cost free.
I’d bet the a good chunk of the energy used in current distillation is generated using other wise low grade or nearly useless by products.
The savings is probably only a small fraction compared the headline. But the 100 mpg carburetor is out there somewhere too.
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