Membranes and membrane processes for CO2 separation: MEMFO's long-term effort in reducing carbon emissions

Abstract

Urgent actions are needed to reduce CO₂ emissions and mitigate the increasingly severe impacts of climate change. Since the 1990s, the membrane research group (MEMFO) at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology has been committed to developing effective membranes and membrane processes for CO₂ separation. MEMFO's research can be categorized into five main themes: facilitated transport membranes, hybrid membranes, carbon membranes, membrane contactors, and related modeling and process simulation. These themes are tied to industrial applications in CO₂ capture from flue gas, biogas upgrading, natural gas sweetening, and hydrogen purification. Promising membranes, identified based on their laboratory-scale performances, have been selected for onsite testing in industrial processes to validate their performances as well as stability and durability. Verified membranes are upscaled for pilot tests. This account paper summarizes MEMFO's research and development outcomes over the past decade and discusses our research strategies and perspectives for future work.