Abstract
Aplications of membrane processes to SO2 and CO2 removal from flue gas are roughly evaluated based on a boiler of 1, 000 MW power plant.
We can find out high-selective membrane mateials for SO2/N2 (more than α=20, 000) in the literature. Assuming the possibility of manufacturing of membranes with 0.1μm thickness, we can expect that the membrane process has a great advantage comparing to the conventional SO2 removal process.
Membrane processes have also a great possibility for the CO2 removal from the flue gas if the CO2 permeation rate increases up to 5 times and the membrane cost decreases to 25% compared with curently available membranes. These assumptions seems to be realistic in the near future considering recent improvements of membrane materials and developments of commercial markets. Further improvement of the membrane selectivity for CO2/N2 could offer a more economical separation process for CO2 removal.
In the future inorganic membranes are required for the high temperature application of the separation of pollutants from a synthesis gas of coal gasification.
