Gas–liquid membrane contactors for acid gas removal: recent advances and future challenges

Gas–liquid membrane contactor, which integrates the absorption process with membranes, is an emerging membrane technology that is of particular interest to acid gas absorption. This article presents a short review on the recent development of membrane contactor technology. With the analysis of key challenges being addressed for membrane contactor development, the state-of-the-art of highly hydrophobic microporous membranes, novel liquid absorbents and membrane module design and process simulation are presented. The future opportunities for achieving breakthrough in membrane contactor that can lead to large-scale practical applications are also summarized.