Inorganic Membranes Increasing awareness of the global environmental impact of greenhouse gases spurs researches into new technology for more efficient fuel utilization and lower carbon dioxide emission. Membrane has been acknowledged to be a clean technology by both U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO) of Japan. Hydrogen, which burns to form water, is considered a clean, renewable source of fuel. Porous and dense hydrogen-permselective membranes can be employed for hydrogen separation and purification and in hydrogen recovery and production. Palladium-based membranes are capable of producing ultra-pure hydrogen required in fuel cell application. The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) initiated the Vision 21 program aimed at the development of membrane technology for oxygen separation. It is well known that oxygen-enriched combustion increases the efficiency of power plant and car engines, thus significantly improving their environmental performance while reducing the energy cost. Zeolite membrane is a viable candidate for this task. Recently, the New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO) of Japan sponsored the development of zeolite membrane technology for CO2 separation from industrial flue gas. The main goal is to reduce emission of greenhouse gases by recapturing CO2 for reuse in dry reforming of methane or Fisher-Tropsh reactions. 1. Engineered zeolite membranes (January 1997 - present) 2. Hydrogen selective membranes (September, 1998 - February, 2001)
