Facilitated Transport Membranes for Environmental, Energy, and Biochemical Applications

Facilitated Transport Membranes for Environmental, Energy, and Biochemical Applications 

Department of Chemical and Biomolecidar Engineering, Department of Materials Science and Engineering, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio 43210-1180 

Advanced Membrane Technology and Applications. Edited by Norman N. Li, Anthony G. Fane, W. S. Winston Ho, and T. Matsuura Copyright 2008 John Wiley Sons, Inc. 

Compared with the conventional membranes based on the solution-diffusion mechanism, facilitated transport membranes have several advantages (1) they are often highly selective, especially at low concentration driving forces (2) high permeability can be achieved when the concentration driving force is low and (3) they can maintain both high permeability and high selectivity at the same time. 

Facilitated transport membranes have been studied for a long time. The earliest report was on the facilitated transport of oxygen through the hemoglobin solutions (Scholander, 1960). Since then, new membranes and new applications have emerged in many areas. Today, the potential applications of facilitated transport membranes include metal recovery, acid gas removal, bioseparations, olefin/paraffin separation, and O2/N2 separation. 

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