Carbon membrane for gas separation: a short review

Abstract

For the past 30 years, membrane technology has been prominently used for various gas purifications to obtain a high purity gas. Membrane acts as semipermeable wall, which the separation occurs by controlling the rate of movement of various molecules between two liquid phases or two gas phases or a liquid and a gas phase that passing through the membranes. Then, the advantages offered by membrane process such as simple operation with low energy consumption, low operating and capital cost, continuous process and unnecessary regeneration process compared to absorption and adsorption processes, have attracted considerable attentions by researchers. Besides, traditional methods such as pressure swing adsorption, cryogenic distillation and amine absorption which experienced with high energy consumption, expensive and lead to adverse impact on the environment has even made membrane process as preferable method for gas separation. Polymeric materials were used to develop a membrane that can attain high selectivity and permeability with high chemical and thermal resistance.