Membrane materials for addressing energy and environmental challenges

Our modern society must solve various severe problems to maintain and increase our quality of life: from water stress to global warming, to fossil fuel depletion, to environmental pollution. The process intensification (PI) strategy is expected to contribute to overcoming many of these issues by facilitating the transition from a resource-intensive to a knowledge-intensive industrial system that will guarantee sustainable growth. Membrane operations, which respond efficiently to the requirements of the PI strategy, have the potential to replace conventional energy-intensive separation techniques, which will boost the efficiency and reduce the environmental impact of separations as well as conversion processes. This work critically reviews the current status and emerging applications of (integrated) membrane operations with a special focus on energy and environmental applications. Copyright © 2012 by Annual Reviews. All rights reserved.