Synthesis and performance of microporous inorganic membranes for CO2 separation: a review

Removal of CO2 by membrane technologies is one promising approach as compared to other CO2 capture technologies due to advantages such as simpler operation, higher reliability, lower capital and operating cost, higher energy efficiency, and a cleaner process. In the field of CO2 gas separation, inorganic membranes have been attracting a lot of attention. Three classes of microporous membrane family, i.e. microporous silica membranes, microporous carbon membranes and zeolite membranes, have been widely studied due to their potential in separating CO2 gas molecules, contributed by their distribution of selective micropores which are almost identical to the required molecular sizes for diffusing CO2 gas. This paper review various methods to fabricate the above three types of microporous membranes, at the same time, looking at other researchers employing these methods to fabricate microporous membranes for CO2 separation.