Membranes for Clean and Renewable Power Applications

In the era of the 'Green Economy' great transformations inspired by the con- cepts of eco-sustainability and innovation are being implemented. Among the various changes, there is a strong awareness of the urgency to endorse developed technologies for the production of clean and renewable power from natural sources. Until a few years ago, oil, natural gas and coal were considered unique and exclusive energy sources. Today, global warming, depletion of fossil fuels and shared demand for larger amounts of energy are rationally leading towards the engineering of biomass, vegetables and other wastes for the development of alternative fuels. A second generation of biofuels, including bioethanol, biogas and micro- bial fuel cells, is regarded as a promising source of energy, which produces lower carbons emission than coal and oil and overcomes controversies such as loss of biodiversity and competition for land use with food and natural fibre crops. Increasingly, water and wind power along with sunlight are also considered precious renewable sources for the production of energy. Despite the large amount of research currently dedicated to the theme of the production and consumption of green energy, there are still numer- ous concerns regarding the purification of combustibles such as hydrogen, methane, bioethanol and others. At the same time, storage and supply of heat and electrical power derived from hydro-power, sunlight and wind are critical issues, because intermittent and locally variable weather does not permit production on demand. Therefore, new strategies have to be imple- mented to reconcile supply with demand. In this context, membrane technology can facilitate smart production and management of renewable and clean power through integrated and sustain- able processes, thereby reducing capital costs, and optimizing and rational- izing the design and quality of innovative productive power plants. Indeed, its high selectivity, high conversion rates, modularity and compactness, along with scalability and the possibility of computer aided control make mem- brane technology an innovative strategy which is easy to assemble and inte- grate into traditional lines.