Latest Development on Membrane Fabrication for Natural Gas Purification: A Review

In the last few decades, membrane technology has been a great attention for gas separation technology especially for natural gas sweetening. The intrinsic character of membranes makes them fit for process escalation, and this versatility could be the significant factor to induce membrane technology in most gas separation areas. Membranes were synthesized with various materials which depended on the applications. The fabrication of polymeric membrane was one of the fastest growing fields of membrane technology. However, polymeric membranes could not meet the separation performances required especially in high operating pressure due to deficiencies problem. The chemistry and structure of support materials like inorganic membranes were also one of the focus areas when inorganic membranes showed some positive results towards gas separation. However, the materials are somewhat lacking to meet the separation performance requirement. Mixed matrix membrane (MMM) which is comprising polymeric and inorganic membranes presents an interesting approach for enhancing the separation performance. Nevertheless, MMM is yet to be commercialized as the material combinations are still in the research stage. This paper highlights the potential promising areas of research in gas separation by taking into account the material selections and the addition of a third component for conventional MMM.