Inorganic membranes for gas separation

This chapter will only deal with the possible gas transport mechanisms and their relevance for separation of gas mixtures. Beside the transport mechanisms, process parameters also have a marked influence on the separation efficiency. Effects like backdiffusion and concentration polarization are determined by the operating downstream and upstream pressure, the flow regime, etc. This can decrease the separation efficiency considerably. Since these effects are to some extent treated in literature (Hsieh, Bhave and Fleming 1988, Keizer et al. 1988), they will not be considered here, save for one example at the end of Section 6.2.1. It seemed more important to describe the possibilities of inorganic membranes for gas separation than to deal with optimization of the process. Therefore, this chapter will only describe the possibilities of the several transport mechanisms in inorganic membranes for selective gas separation with high permeability at variable temperature and pressure. 

Lin YS-, Porous and dense inorganic membranes for gas separations. Presented at the AlChE Annual Meeting, Miami, FL, paper 23c (1992). 

Morooka S and Kusakabe K. Microporous inorganic membranes for gas separation. MRS Bulletin March 1999 25-28. 

Lee LL, Tsai DS. Synthesis and permeation properties of silicon-carbon based inorganic membranes for gas separation. Ind Eng Chem Res. 2001 40 612-6. 

Lee L-L, Tsai D-S (2001) Synthesis and permeation properties of silicon-carbon-based inorganic membrane for gas separation. Ind Eng Chem Res 40 (2) 612-616 Rao MB, Shear S (1993) Nanoporous carbon membranes for separation of gas mixtures by selective surfaee flow. J Membr Sci 85 (3) 253-264... 

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