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Gas Separation

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Encyclopedia of Membranes

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Gas separation is a widely used technique in which the objective is the separation of one or more gases from a mixture. It is becoming crucial for several industrial processes such as the treatment of fumes from coal-fired plants, in particular, aiming for the removal of CO2 to reduce the greenhouse effect. Growing interest is also given to other applications such as the separation and purification of commercially important gases such as H2, CH4, and O2 from natural gas. The most common methods to perform gas separation are:

  1. 1.

    Separation with solvent/sorbents

  2. 2.

    Separation by cryogenic distillation

  3. 3.

    Separation with membranes

Separation with Solvent/Sorbents

The separation with solvent/sorbents is based on the affinity of the gas toward a specific sorbent such as zeolites, alumina, or activated carbon or a solvent, for instance, MEA (methanolamine). The most illustrative example of this technology is represented by the pressure swing adsorption (PSA) method. The separation occurs...

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References

  • Carta M, Malpass-Evans R, Croad M, Rogan Y, Jansen JC, Bernardo P, Bazzarelli F, McKeown NB (2013) An efficient polymer molecular sieve for membrane gas separations. Science 339(6117):303–307

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  • Yampolskii Y, Freeman B (eds) (2010) Membrane gas separation. Wiley, Chichester, UK, 370 pp

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  • Robeson LM (2008) The upper bound revisited. J Membr Sci 320(1+2):390–400

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Chemistry, The University of Edinburgh, Joseph Black Building, David Brewster Road, EH9 3FJ, Edinburgh, Scotland, UK

    Mariolino Carta

Authors
  1. Mariolino Carta
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Correspondence to Mariolino Carta .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Institute on Membrane Technology, National Research Council of Italy, ITM-CNR, University of Calabria, Rende, Italy

    Enrico Drioli

  2. Institute on Membrane Technology, National Research Council of Italy, ITM-CNR, University of Calabria, Rende, Italy

    Lidietta Giorno

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© 2015 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Carta, M. (2015). Gas Separation. In: Drioli, E., Giorno, L. (eds) Encyclopedia of Membranes. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-40872-4_261-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-40872-4_261-1

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-40872-4

  • eBook Packages: Springer Reference Chemistry and Mat. ScienceReference Module Physical and Materials ScienceReference Module Chemistry, Materials and Physics

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