Why Is Demand for Gas Separation Membranes on the Rise?

What is driving the global gas separation membranes’ market surge? A close analysis of the regional investment in the market and critical end-use applications reveals a few main takeaways. Increasing concern for greenhouse gas emissions, innovations in materials science and key advantages of membrane separation are all helping boost the market for gas separation membranes.

150% Growth in Gas Separation Membranes Market

Demand for gas separation membranes is on the rise worldwide. Studies from Q4 2022 show a CAGR of 8.1% for the next 10 years. This translates into a 150% increase in the global market value for gas separation membranes from $1.9 billion to $3.1 billion by 2028.

Western Europe has the largest individual share of the worldwide gas separation membranes market, followed by North America and Asia-Pacific, particularly China. Analysts attribute high market growth in the U.S. primarily to a strong manufacturing sector, which frequently works with gas, chemicals and oils.

In China, growth is mainly due to a growing need to minimize carbon emissions. Gas separation membranes remove CO₂ from fuels and other products for this purpose. The use of gas separation membranes for environmental reasons is expected to drive long-term market growth all over the world.

Causes for Gas Separation Membrane Demand

It is clear that demand for gas separation membranes is on the rise, but what is causing this growth? Many factors could be influencing the market, including three that are particularly important.

Growing Emphasis On Sustainability

Worldwide, businesses and individuals are increasingly taking action to fight climate change. Minimizing greenhouse gas emissions plays a central role in these efforts. Everyone is searching for ways to remove the harmful emissions from products and activities people engage in daily. For example, new fuels are being developed for conventional combustion engine vehicles as an alternative to electric cars. 

Gas separation membranes are crucial to these sustainability initiatives. Among the most common applications for gas separation membranes are CO₂ and nitrogen removal, including for fuel conditioning. Gas separation membranes offer advantages over other purification and filtration methods that make membranes ideal for creating cleaner fuels.

Amine absorption has been the conventional method for removing CO₂ from fossil fuels. However, membrane separation is more efficient and cost effective since it doesn’t require a gas-to-liquid phase transition. As a result, membrane gas separation requires less energy and resources to deliver the same results.

The efficiency and simplicity of gas separation membranes make them ideal for emissions-conscious businesses. Companies get to reduce emissions by creating cleaner fuels and minimize the amount of energy and emissions needed to complete the GHG removal process. As more people join the fight against climate change, this application for gas separation membranes will be a major driver of market growth.

More Advanced Membrane Materials

Gas separation membrane technology has improved over recent years with innovations that put it on par with conventional filtration and purification methods. In the past, membrane separation was seen as a tradeoff between selectivity and efficiency. If someone wanted a membrane to be highly selective, they needed to allow more time for gas separation.

This is no longer the case. Advances in materials science now allow membrane separation to be a highly selective, quick yet effective process. For example, in 2022, a team of researchers at MIT developed a new type of CO₂ filtration membrane. This membrane material requires only 10% of the energy conventional methods need to remove CO₂ from fossil fuels.

The researchers at MIT used hydrocarbon polymers to achieve high permeability and high selectivity. Compared to cellulosic membranes, the hydrocarbon membranes are 100 times more permeable and five times more selective when removing CO₂.

Advances like this make membrane separation a more desirable option than conventional gas separation techniques. As a result, more businesses are investing in gas separation membranes, helping to drive market growth. Investing in these technologies to reduce carbon footprint can even help enterprises improve their ESG profiles.

Affordability and Customization

Gas separation is widely used today, but what would motivate businesses to choose membrane separation over other methods? The high level of affordability and modularity of membrane separation could be essential factors in the massive projected growth for the market.

The main advantages of membrane separation may have been overshadowed by relatively low efficiency. However, new advances in materials science have changed that. As a result, more businesses are taking advantage of the strengths membrane separation offers.

For example, the modular nature of membrane separation makes it highly customizable. Businesses can be selective about the types of gas they filter out and how filtration occurs. Due to improved selectivity with modern gas separation membranes, companies can also achieve consistent, high-quality filtration results.

Additionally, the simplicity of membrane filtration makes maintenance easy. There are no moving parts in a membrane separation system. In fact, they are usually as simple as a pipe for the gas to flow through surrounded by the separation membrane material. This streamlined, approachable design makes adoption easy.

A high level of energy efficiency also makes membrane separation a very cost-effective option for purifying gasses. The simplicity of membrane separation compared to other methods plays a vital role in this. For instance, membrane separation requires no gas-to-liquid transition to filter out desired gasses.

This means it requires less energy to purify gas using membrane separation. Reduced energy consumption lowers operating costs, emissions and carbon footprint. Adopting a highly energy-efficient gas separation process can even help businesses achieve carbon neutrality. This is especially true in manufacturing, which produces over 25% of GHG emissions in the U.S. and utilizes a large amount of oil and gas.

Growing Global Demand for Gas Separation Membranes

Recent data projects 150% growth in the gas separation membranes market with an 8.1% CAGR. This surge in demand for gas separation membranes worldwide can attribute to a few key factors.

A growing emphasis on sustainability and emissions reduction is increasing the demand for CO₂ filtering. Membrane separation has proven the most efficient and cost effective method for this process. Recent advances in materials science are making gas separation membrane technology more selective and efficient than ever