Three Emerging Gas Separation Membrane Materials

 

Polymeric membranes made from materials such as polyimide, polysulfone, and cellulose acetate are well-established in the gas separation membrane space for applications including natural gas processing, biogas upgrading, and hydrogen separation. Start-ups developing new gas separation membrane materials seek to improve performance and unlock new applications. Three of the material areas analysed in IDTechEx's "Gas Separation Membranes 2026-2036: Materials, Markets, Players, and Forecasts" report are explored in this article.

 

 

 

There are now several active projects using metallic membranes for hydrogen separation. Metal membranes enable transportation of hydrogen in a dissociative form and consequently give a theoretically unbounded selectivity and access to ultra-pure hydrogen. This ultra-pure H₂ can be beneficial for sensitive applications like fuel cells, semiconductor manufacturing, and analytical instruments where trace impurities can cause problems.

 

Palladium and its alloys have high hydrogen permeability and can handle high gas flow rates, meaning they are well-suited to gas separation. Key players developing such membranes include H2SITE and Hydrogen Mem-Tech. Targeted applications include purification of hydrogen from biogas or natural gas (grey, blue, green H₂ from biogas), water gas shift (for use in grey or blue hydrogen production), ammonia cracking (for use of low-carbon ammonia as a marine fuel or hydrogen/energy carrier), and helium purification (extracts H₂ from He streams).

 

Beyond palladium and gas separation membranes, many other materials will be needed to realize a global hydrogen economy. IDTechEx has also explored ion exchange membranes and materials for green hydrogen production.

 

 

Facilitated transport membranes for gas separation are being developed by players such as Ardent and Aqualung Carbon Capture. By incorporating a carrier agent within a polymer matrix which reversibly reacts with target gas molecules, facilitated transport membranes enhance selectivity and gas flux. The involvement of water is essential for these reactions, so humidification is incorporated into process design.

 

Carbon capture is a key target application for FTMs. Conventional gas separation membranes rely on partial pressure differences to provide the separation driving force and subsequently have poor CO₂ recovery rates at low CO₂ concentrations in flue gas. FTMs perform better in this scenario because carrier molecules selectively react with carbon dioxide to assist transportation through the membrane.

 

Membranes have seen limited deployment in the CCUS space so far, with amine solvent solutions instead leading the carbon capture technology landscape. However, if new gas separation membrane materials can perform the N₂/CO₂ separation at a reasonable capture cost, there will be opportunities for membranes to shine. This could include emitters with space constraints or unwillingness to handle hazardous chemicals. Gas separation membranes are also promising for hybrid systems where they can be combined with cryogenics/pressure swing adsorption/solvents to achieve the best separation economics.

 

 

Composite membranes, such as mixed matrix membranes, seek to combine the easy processability of polymers with the enhanced performance of filler materials. One example is the incorporation of MOF crystalline molecular sieves into polymer membranes to go beyond the selectivity permeability trade-off usually associated with polymer membranes (known as the Robeson limit). Switzerland-based UniSieve is a company developing these membranes for applications such as carbon capture.

 

 

Driven by energy security concerns and decarbonization commitments, there are growing market opportunities globally for both incumbent and emerging gas separation membrane materials. Carbon capture and hydrogen separations are key target applications for several gas separation membrane start-ups. For more information, please visit IDTechEx's "Gas Separation Membranes 2026-2036: Materials, Markets, Players, and Forecasts" report.

 

For more information on this report, including downloadable sample pages, please visit www.IDTechEx.com/GasSepMem, or for the full portfolio of research available from IDTechEx, see www.IDTechEx.com.