On a Rational Performance Evaluation for the Development of Inorganic Membrane Technology in Gas Separation and Membrane Reactors

Abstract

Inorganic membranes can be made of different materials. However, there have been only few reports on membrane evaluation to convert lab-scale membranes into a prototype for industrial applications. In order to fill this significant gap, new approaches for the development and optimization of membrane products are required. This work focuses on the different aspects related to the performance assessment of membranes used for gas separation and membrane reactors. This approach can be visualized as an algorithm consisting of three specific loops involving different aspects of the overall membrane evaluation. Several factors that have an impact on membrane performance are discussed. These factors are divided into two categories: directly affecting the measurements (setup leakage, concentration polarization, repeatability, pressure gradient) and related to the intrinsic characteristics of permeation flux across the membrane (single and mixture permeation, transport modeling, defect flux, microstructure flexibility). This evaluation protocol includes a literature review with the most recent breakthroughs in this research area.