{"670434":{"#nid":"670434","#data":{"type":"news","title":"New Polymer Membranes, AI Predictions Could Dramatically Reduce Energy, Water Use in Oil Refining","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EA new kind of polymer membrane created by researchers at Georgia Tech could reshape how refineries process crude oil, dramatically reducing the energy and water required while extracting even more useful materials.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe so-called DUCKY polymers \u2014 more on the unusual name in a minute \u2014 are \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.nature.com\/articles\/s41563-023-01682-2\u0022\u003Ereported Oct. 16 in \u003Cem\u003ENature Materials\u003C\/em\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E. And they\u2019re just the beginning for the team of Georgia Tech chemists, chemical engineers, and materials scientists. They also have created artificial intelligence tools to predict the performance of these kinds of polymer membranes, which could accelerate development of new ones.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe implications are stark: the initial separation of crude oil components is responsible for roughly 1% of energy used across the globe. What\u2019s more, the membrane separation technology the researchers are developing could have several uses, from biofuels and biodegradable plastics to pulp and paper products.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cWe\u0027re establishing concepts here that we can then use with different molecules or polymers, but we apply them to crude oil because that\u0027s the most challenging target right now,\u201d said \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/chemistry.gatech.edu\/people\/mg-finn\u0022\u003EM.G. Finn\u003C\/a\u003E, professor and James A. Carlos Family Chair in the \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/chemistry.gatech.edu\/people\/mg-finn\u0022\u003ESchool of Chemistry and Biochemistry\u003C\/a\u003E.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/coe.gatech.edu\/news\/2023\/10\/new-polymer-membranes-ai-predictions-could-dramatically-reduce-energy-water-use-oil\u0022\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003ERead the full story on the College of Engineering website.\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":"","format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EThe membranes would improve distillation processes that account for 1% of the world\u2019s energy use.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"The membranes would improve distillation processes that account for 1% of the world\u2019s energy use."}],"uid":"27446","created_gmt":"2023-10-16 13:34:59","changed_gmt":"2024-08-27 14:51:26","author":"Joshua Stewart","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","dateline":{"date":"2023-10-16T00:00:00-04:00","iso_date":"2023-10-16T00:00:00-04:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"672055":{"id":"672055","type":"image","title":"Crude Oil DUCKY Membrane","body":"\u003Cdiv\u003E\r\n\u003Cp\u003EA sample of a DUCKY polymer membrane researchers created to perform the initial separation of crude oils using significantly less energy. (Photo: Candler Hobbs)\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\u003C\/div\u003E\r\n","created":"1697463331","gmt_created":"2023-10-16 13:35:31","changed":"1697463331","gmt_changed":"2023-10-16 13:35:31","alt":"Two hands holding an example of the DUCKY polymer membranes researchers created to perform the initial separation of crude oils with significantly less energy. (Photo: Candler Hobbs)","file":{"fid":"255236","name":"Crude-Oil-Membrane-5108-t.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/2023\/10\/16\/Crude-Oil-Membrane-5108-t.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/2023\/10\/16\/Crude-Oil-Membrane-5108-t.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":750499,"path_740":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/2023\/10\/16\/Crude-Oil-Membrane-5108-t.jpg?itok=P_Cj-ZX4"}}},"media_ids":["672055"],"groups":[{"id":"217141","name":"Georgia Tech Materials Institute"},{"id":"197261","name":"Institute for Electronics and Nanotechnology"},{"id":"660369","name":"Matter and Systems"}],"categories":[{"id":"141","name":"Chemistry and Chemical Engineering"},{"id":"144","name":"Energy"},{"id":"145","name":"Engineering"},{"id":"135","name":"Research"}],"keywords":[{"id":"9461","name":"Chemical and Biolmolecular Engineering"},{"id":"594","name":"college of engineering"},{"id":"96231","name":"Ryan Lively"},{"id":"96831","name":"M.G. Finn"},{"id":"193176","name":"Rampi Ramprasad"},{"id":"2177","name":"membranes"},{"id":"187915","name":"go-researchnews"},{"id":"192863","name":"go-ai"},{"id":"187433","name":"go-ien"},{"id":"186870","name":"go-imat"}],"core_research_areas":[],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022mailto:jstewart@gatech.edu\u0022\u003EJoshua Stewart\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Cbr\u003ECollege of Engineering\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"email":["jstewart@gatech.edu"],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}