Isothermal Refining by Organic Solvent Nanofiltration - ISOREF

原油精炼是发达经济体第二大能源密集型产业（仅次于化学品生产）。例如，炼油消耗了美国总能源的6%。目前的炼油技术是基于蒸馏将原油分离成具有不同分子量的馏分，然后对这些馏分中的一些进行进一步反应（重整、加氢处理、裂化等），然后必须进一步蒸馏。蒸馏涉及通过沸腾将大部分液体进料转化为气体，使得进料中存在的化合物可以通过其沸点的差异来分离。在精炼过程中，蒸馏通常占所有能耗的一半以上，因为沸腾时的相变需要大量的能量输入。避免这种巨大能耗的一种方法是通过膜在液相中进行分馏。如果碳氢化合物的混合物被压力压在膜上，而膜只对某些材料是可渗透的，那么我们就可以将通过膜的分子与不通过膜的分子分离开来。这避免了蒸发或蒸馏的大量能量注入。理论计算表明，通过膜分离浓缩混合物所需的能量小于与蒸馏相关的能量的5%。毫不奇怪，人们对使用膜分离和浓缩液体感兴趣已经有一段时间了。迄今为止，大多数膜分离是基于水的。一个主要的成功是在海水淡化领域，膜被用来从海水中分离淡水。膜通常不用于有机体系中的分子分离，因为直到最近才有几种膜在有机液体中稳定。最近，这种情况发生了变化-帝国理工学院的研究已经开发出在大多数有机系统中稳定的膜。这些已通过帝国分拆公司膜提取技术（MET）商业化，该公司于2010年3月1日被赢创工业收购。赢创MET在西伦敦投资兴建了一座大型膜制造工厂，实现了英国政府“制造未来”的愿景。在许多情况下，所需的分离无法通过膜的一次通过来实现，因为膜不能充分区分存在的不同分子。在这些情况下，为了实现所需的分离，液体可以通过膜多次处理。这种膜的排列被称为膜级联。鉴于有机体系膜的开发及其在膜级联中的应用所取得的进展，本项目将研究膜在原油精炼中的应用。膜不需要沸腾和冷凝，因此可以在单一温度下操作。这将减少对加热和冷却的需求，从而减少相关的热损失。因此，我们预计，采用有机溶剂纳滤膜的等温精炼将显著降低从原油中制造燃料和润滑油产品的能源需求。该项目将使用合成清洁原油，由模拟真实的材料的关键碳氢化合物成分组成。实验和模拟工作将被用来设计一个膜级联分离合成原油，这个级联设计将组装和运行，以证明这一概念。进一步的模拟然后将估计如果等温精炼被用于真实的原油将导致什么样的能量节省。该项目将与合作伙伴壳牌全球解决方案公司密切合作，壳牌全球解决方案公司是炼油和炼油技术的主要公司。

Crude oil refining is (after chemicals production) the second most energy intensive industry in advanced economies. For example, refining consumes 6% of the total energy used in the US. Current refinery technology is based on distillation for separation of the crude oil into fractions with varying molecular weights, followed by further reactions on some of these fractions (reforming, hydrotreating, cracking etc), which must then be further distilled. Distillation involves converting a large fraction of a liquid feed into a gas by boiling, so that compounds present in the feed can be separated by means of differences in their boiling points. In refining, distillation typically account for more than half of all the energy consumed, since the phase change on boiling requires significant energy input.One way of avoiding this large energy consumption would be to carry out fractionation in the liquid phase via a membrane. If a mixture of hydrocarbons is pressed by pressure against a membrane, and the membrane is permeable to only some of the materials, then we can separate the molecules that pass through the membrane from those that do not. This avoids the large energy injections of evaporation or distillation. Theoretical calculations show that the energy required for concentrating a mixture by membrane separation is less than 5% of the energy associated with distillation. Not surprisingly, people have been interested in using membranes to separate and concentrate liquids for some time. The majority of membrane separations to date are water based. A major success is in the area of desalination, where membranes are used to separate fresh water out of seawater. Membranes are not generally used for molecular separations in organic systems, because until recently there were few membranes stable in organic liquids. This has changed recently - research at Imperial College has developed membranes that are stable in most organic systems. These have been commercialised through an Imperial spin out company, Membrane Extraction Technology (MET) which was acquired by Evonik Industries on 1 March 2010. Evonik MET has made a substantial investment in a large scale membrane manufacturing facility in West London, delivering on the UK Government's vision for Manufacturing the Future.In many cases the required separation cannot be achieved in a single pass through a membrane, because the membrane does not discriminate highly enough between the different molecules that are present. In these cases, to achieve the required separation, the liquid can be processed through membranes multiple times. This arrangement of membranes is known as a membrane cascade.Given the advances that have been made in the development of membranes for organic systems and their application in membrane cascades, this project will research the use of membranes for refining crude oil. Membranes do not require boiling and condensation, and so can be operated at a single temperature. This will reduce the needs for heating and cooling, and so the associated heat losses. Thus we expect that isothermal refining with organic solvent nanofiltration membranes will significantly reduce the energy requirements for manufacturing fuels and lube products from crude oil.The project will work with a synthetic clean crude, made up to simulate the key hydrocarbon components of a real material. Experimental and simulation work will be used to design a membrane cascade to separate the synthetic crude; this cascade design will then be assembled and operated to prove the concept. Further simulations will then estimate what energy savings would result if isothermal refining were employed with a real crude. The project will work closely with partner Shell Gobal Solutions, who are a major company in oil refining and refinery technology.