LIQUID MEMBRANE IN GAS SEPARATIONS

Gas separation membrane technologies are extensively used in industry. Typical applications include carbon dioxide separation from various gas streams, production of oxygen enriched air, hydrogen recovery from a variety of refinery and petrochemical streams, olefin separation such as ethylene-ethane or propylene-propane mixtures. However, membrane separation methods often do not allow reaching needed levels of performance and selectivity. Polymeric membrane materials with relatively high selectivities used so far show generally low permeabilities, which is referred to as trade-off or ''upper bound'' relationship for specific gas pairs. In this context, facilitated transport of a specific gas molecule through modified polymeric membranes or liquid membranes containing mobile carriers can be employed to improve single bulk material (polymer) properties.