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Selective and sustainable separation of hydrocarbons from crude oil via molecular sieve

Nature Sustainability volume 8, pages 784–792 (2025)Cite this article

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Abstract

The sustainable separation of hydrocarbons from crude oil is critical for reducing energy consumption and carbon emissions in the chemical industry. Current methods are energy intensive and do not allow for isolation of specific hydrocarbons due to overlapping physicochemical properties and molecular complexities in crude oil. Here we introduce an energy-efficient molecular sieving strategy using cucurbit[7]uril (CB[7]) aqueous solution to directly extract cyclohexane (CH) from crude oil. CB[7] enables efficient CH separation under ambient and harsh conditions through shape- and size-selective binding with an ultrahigh affinity (2.5 × 109 M−1). Industrial validation shows >99% CH purity from azeotropic benzene mixtures and crude distillates and achieves 57.4–82.4% energy savings compared with current industrial methods. By demonstrating the scalability and robustness of CB[7]-based separations, this work highlights the potential of molecular sieves for sustainable, cost-effective hydrocarbon recovery from crude oil, paving the way for large-scale, sustainable hydrocarbon purification.

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Fig. 1: Crude oil separations.
Fig. 2: Separation of crude oil through liquid–liquid extraction.
Fig. 3: Relative ratios of hydrocarbons and energy consumption for the separation of industrial samples.
Fig. 4: Host–guest complexation between hydrocarbons and CB[7].
Fig. 5: Single-crystal structures.

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Data availability

The data that support the findings of this study are available within the paper and its Supplementary Information. The X-ray crystallographic coordinates for structures reported in this study have been deposited at the Cambridge Crystallographic Data Centre (CCDC), under deposition numbers 2099397-2099400. These data can be obtained free of charge from The Cambridge Crystallographic Data Centre via www.ccdc.cam.ac.uk/data_request/cif. Source data are provided with this paper.

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Acknowledgements

N.M.K. acknowledges support from the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST; grant OSR-2019-CRG8-4032). G.Z. acknowledges support from the Jiangsu Specially Appointed Professor Program. K.K. acknowledges support from the Institute for Basic Science (IBS-R007-D1).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Smart Hybrid Materials Laboratory (SHMs), Advanced Membranes and Porous Materials Center, Physical Science and Engineering Division, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), Thuwal, Saudi Arabia

    Gengwu Zhang, Lukman O. Alimi, Weibin Lin, Basem A. Moosa & Niveen M. Khashab

  2. School of Materials Science and Engineering, Suzhou University of Science and Technology, Suzhou, China

    Gengwu Zhang

  3. Department of Chemistry, Pohang University of Science and Technology, Pohang, Republic of Korea

    Ikjin Kim & Kimoon Kim

  4. Center for Self-assembly and Complexity (CSC), Institute for Basic Science (IBS), Pohang, Republic of Korea

    Deepak Ramdas Boraste, Rahul Dev Mukhopadhyay & Kimoon Kim

  5. Department of Chemistry, SRM Institute of Science and Technology, Kattankulathur, India

    Rahul Dev Mukhopadhyay

  6. Clean Combustion Research Center (CCRC), King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), Thuwal, Saudi Arabia

    Aiping Chen

  7. Core Labs, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), Thuwal, Saudi Arabia

    Vasilios G. Samaras & Abdul-Hamid Emwas

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  1. Gengwu Zhang
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Contributions

G.Z. and N.M.K. conceived and designed the research project. G.Z. performed separation experiments, NMR analysis, 1D GC-MS characterization and host–guest complexation studies. I.K. conducted crystallization experiments and single-crystal X-ray diffraction (SCXRD) analysis. D.R.B. synthesized the cucurbituril homologues. L.O.A. analysed the crystallographic data. W.L. performed molecular dynamics simulations. A.C. conducted the GC-MS measurements. V.G.S. carried out the 2D GC × GC analysis. A.-H.E. performed NMR characterization. K.K. supervised crystallographic studies and molecular design. All authors discussed the results and contributed to manuscript preparation. G.Z. wrote the original draft. B.A.M., R.D.M., W.L., N.M.K. and K.K. reviewed and edited the manuscript. N.M.K. acquired funding and supervised the project.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Kimoon Kim or Niveen M. Khashab.

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Nature Sustainability thanks Razi Epsztein, Jian-Rong Li and the other, anonymous, reviewer(s) for their contribution to the peer review of this work.

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Supplementary Information

Supplementary Figs. 1–51, Tables 1–4 and Discussion.

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Source data

Source Data Fig. 2

Unprocessed NMR data, GC-MS and separation results.

Source Data Fig. 3

Separation results and energy cost calculation results.

Source Data Fig. 4

Binding constant results.

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Zhang, G., Kim, I., Alimi, L.O. et al. Selective and sustainable separation of hydrocarbons from crude oil via molecular sieve. Nat Sustain 8, 784–792 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41893-025-01563-3

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