Advances in Membranes from Microporous Materials for Hydrogen Separation from Light Gases

With the pressing concern of the climate change, hydrogen will undoubtedly play an essential role in the future to accelerate the way out from fossil fuel-based economy. In this case, the role of membrane-based separation cannot be neglected since, compared with other conventional process, membrane-based process is more effective and consumes less energy. Regarding this, metal-based membranes, particularly palladium, are usually employed for hydrogen separation because of its high selectivity. However, with the advancement of various microporous materials, the status quo of the metal-based membranes could be challenged since, compared with the metal-based membranes, they could offer better hydrogen separation performance and could also be cheaper to be produced. In this article, the advancement of membranes fabricated from five main microporous materials, namely silica-based membranes, zeolite membranes, carbon-based membranes, metal organic frameworks/covalent organic frameworks (MOF/COF) membranes and microporous polymeric membranes, for hydrogen separation from light gases are extensively discussed. Their performances are then summarized to give further insights regarding the pathway that should be taken to direct the research direction in the future.