Abstract
Membrane separation systems require no or very little chemicals compared to standard unit operations. They are also easy to scale up, energy efficient, and already widely used in various gas and liquid separation processes. Different types of membranes such as common polymers, microporous organic polymers, fixed-site-carrier membranes, mixed matrix membranes, carbon membranes as well as inorganic membranes have been investigated for CO2 capture/removal and other energy processes in the last two decades. The aim of this work is to review the membrane systems applied in different energy processes, such as post-combustion, pre-combustion, oxyfuel combustion, natural gas sweetening, biogas upgrading, hydrogen production, volatile organic compounds (VOC) recovery and pressure retarded osmosis for power generation. Although different membranes could probably be used in a specific separation process, choosing a suitable membrane material will mainly depend on the membrane permeance and selectivity, process conditions (e.g., operating pressure, temperature) and the impurities in a gas stream (such as SO2, NOx, H2S, etc.). Moreover, process design and the challenges relevant to a membrane system are also being discussed to illustrate the membrane process feasibility for a specific application based on process simulation and economic cost estimation.
Highlights
In the International Energy Outlook 2011 (IEO2011) Reference case, world energy consumption is expected to increase by 53% from 2008 to 2035 [1], and the world energy-related carbon dioxide emissions will rise from 30.2 billion metric tons in 2008 to 35.2 billion metric tons in 2020, and
The key motivation for CO2 capture and sequestration (CCS) is that fossil fuels can be continuously used without causing significant CO2 emissions, and the captured CO2 could be further processed in different ways, such as injected into oil wells and gas fields for sequestration [2], converted to important products such as methanol [3] or producing third-generation biofuels based on photosynthesis [4]
An extended review of currently used membrane systems for different applications in energy processes has been conducted, and here we focus more on the challenges, process feasibility and economic costs of membrane gas separations
Summary
In the International Energy Outlook 2011 (IEO2011) Reference case, world energy consumption is expected to increase by 53% from 2008 to 2035 [1], and the world energy-related carbon dioxide emissions will rise from 30.2 billion metric tons in 2008 to 35.2 billion metric tons in 2020, and. The key motivation for CCS is that fossil fuels can be continuously used without causing significant CO2 emissions, and the captured CO2 could be further processed in different ways, such as injected into oil wells and gas fields for sequestration [2], converted to important products such as methanol [3] or producing third-generation biofuels (algae) based on photosynthesis [4]. Pressure retarded osmosis (PRO) technology for power generation (based on knowledge about reverse osmosis (RO)) or forward osmosis (FO) membranes show a great potential for sustainable energy production [35,36,37,38]. An extended review of currently used membrane systems for different applications in energy processes has been conducted, and here we focus more on the challenges, process feasibility and economic costs of membrane gas separations
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