New Advances in Membrane Technologies for CO2 Separation

A special issue of Membranes (ISSN 2077-0375). This special issue belongs to the section "Membrane Applications".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 May 2019) | Viewed by 11608

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
National Research Council of Italy ITM-CNR, Institute on Membrane Technology, Rende, Italy
Interests: membrane gas separation; CO2 capture by membrane technology; membranes for hydrogen production

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Guest Editor
Institute on Membrane Technology, National Research Council (ITM-CNR), Via P. Bucci, Cubo 17C, 87036 Rende (CS), Italy
Interests: catalytic membranes and membrane reactors for hydrogen production, CO2 and alkane conversion, biofuels production; CO2 separation by membranes (polymeric, zeolite, etc.); separation/concentration/purification of gas mixtures of industrial interest by membranes; water recovery from waste industrial streams by membrane condensers; processes innovation by introducing membrane operation in existing production cycles

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The recent SPIRE initiatives developed in the framework of H2020 calls to define CO2 separation and reuse as one of the most important pillars to boost sustainability, making the chemical industry competitive, while at the same time contributing to climate change mitigation. Membrane technologies can find many applications, both in CO2 separation and in its conversion. CO2 separation from flue gas coming out from a power plant or the cement industry, as well as CO2 from biogas and natural gas are some of the fields where membrane gas separation finds application. Moreover, membrane reactors are recently competing as good candidates for CO2 conversion for valuable fuels or chemicals.

To this purpose, membrane engineering, together with materials science, play a key role in the development of membrane technologies as CO2 alternative processes become more compact and efficient, with a lower energy consumption, a reduced plant volume, and are well-fit to the Process Intensification Strategy.

Within this context, this Special Issue aims at compiling relevant contributions showing the recent advances of membrane technologies in CO2 separation and reuse. Modeling and experimental manuscripts, as well as reviews dealing with the most significant technologies, are particularly welcome.

Dr. Giuseppe Barbieri
Dr. Adele Brunetti
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Membranes is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • membrane engineering
  • membrane gas separation
  • membranes for CO2 separation
  • CO2 reuse
  • membrane reactors

Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

12 pages, 3669 KiB  
Article
Influence of Blend Composition and Silica Nanoparticles on the Morphology and Gas Separation Performance of PU/PVA Blend Membranes
by Hemmat Shirvani, Saeid Maghami, Ali Pournaghshband Isfahani and Morteza Sadeghi
Membranes 2019, 9(7), 82; https://doi.org/10.3390/membranes9070082 - 05 Jul 2019
Cited by 18 | Viewed by 4080
Abstract
Polymer blending and mixed-matrix membranes are well-known modification techniques for tuning the gas separation properties of polymer membranes. Here, we studied the gas separation performance of mixed-matrix membranes (MMMs) based on the polyurethane/poly(vinyl alcohol) (PU/PVA) blend containing silica nanoparticles. Pure (CO2, [...] Read more.
Polymer blending and mixed-matrix membranes are well-known modification techniques for tuning the gas separation properties of polymer membranes. Here, we studied the gas separation performance of mixed-matrix membranes (MMMs) based on the polyurethane/poly(vinyl alcohol) (PU/PVA) blend containing silica nanoparticles. Pure (CO2, CH4, N2, O2) and mixed-gas (CO2/N2 and CO2/CH4) permeability experiments were carried out at 10 bar and 35 °C. Poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) with a molecular weight of 200 kDa (PVA200) was blended with polyurethane (PU) to increase the CO2 solubility, while the addition of silica particles to the PU/PVA blend membranes augmented the CO2 separation performance. The SEM images of the membranes showed that the miscibility of the blend improved by increasing the PVA contents. The membrane containing 10 wt % of PVA200 (PU/PVA200–10) exhibited the highest CO2/N2~32.6 and CO2/CH4~9.5 selectivities among other blend compositions, which increased to 45.1 and 15.2 by incorporating 20 wt % nano-silica particles. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue New Advances in Membrane Technologies for CO2 Separation)
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9 pages, 3073 KiB  
Article
Process Simulation and Cost Evaluation of Carbon Membranes for CO2 Removal from High-Pressure Natural Gas
by Yunhan Chu and Xuezhong He
Membranes 2018, 8(4), 118; https://doi.org/10.3390/membranes8040118 - 30 Nov 2018
Cited by 28 | Viewed by 6817
Abstract
Natural gas sweetening is required to remove the acid gas CO2 to meet gas grid specifications. Membrane technology has a great potential in this application compared to the state-of-the-art amine absorption technology. Carbon membranes are of particular interest due to their high [...] Read more.
Natural gas sweetening is required to remove the acid gas CO2 to meet gas grid specifications. Membrane technology has a great potential in this application compared to the state-of-the-art amine absorption technology. Carbon membranes are of particular interest due to their high CO2/CH4 selectivity of over 100. In order to document the advantages of carbon membranes for natural gas (NG) sweetening, HYSYS simulation and cost evaluation were conducted in this work. A two-stage carbon membrane process with recycling in the second stage was found to be technically feasible to achieve >98% CH4 with <2% CH4 loss. The specific natural gas processing cost of 1.122 × 10−2 $/m3 sweet NG was estimated at a feed pressure of 90 bar, which was significantly dependent on the capital-related cost. Future work on improving carbon membrane performance is required to increase the competitiveness of carbon membranes for natural gas sweetening. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue New Advances in Membrane Technologies for CO2 Separation)
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