ABSTRACT

This chapter describes the gas separation performances of different types of carbon membranes such as self-supported hollow fibers, supported flat sheets, and those supported on ceramic tubes. Unsupported flat-sheet carbon membranes have been widely studied to investigate material properties. It is, however, difficult to upscale their production because of the fragility of the carbon membranes. Thus, the development of high-performance supported tubular carbon membranes and self-standing carbon hollow fiber membranes is crucial to meet industrial needs. Self-supported hollow fibers potentially have a lower cost and are applicable for larger gas volumes, whereas the supported carbon membranes, which have a lower packing density, will probably be a good choice for medium to small gas volumes. Asymmetric carbon hollow fiber membranes produced without complex pretreatment have great potential if the problem of continuous production can be solved.