Review on Prospects for Energy Saving in Distillation Process with Microporous Membranes

This review describes prospects for energy saving in the chemical and petroleum industries and recommends that increasing efforts be exerted on the development of membrane-based separation systems. A preliminary estimate suggests that the simple addition of a membrane separation unit to an existing separation system or distillation unit can drastically reduce energy consumption by more than 70%. This review also describes state-of-the-art of zeolite-based separation membranes, which is the one of the most promising technologies among emerging separation methods.