Abstract
The separation of gas mixtures with membranes has emerged from being a laboratory curiosity to becoming a rapidly growing, commercially viable alternative to traditional methods of gas separation within the last two to three decades. Membrane gas separation has become one of the most significant new unit operations to emerge in the chemical industry in the last 25 years 1]. The gas separation membrane module business for 2004 is estimated at $ 170 million with an annual growth rate of 8 %. Table 1 shows commercial applications and some of the major suppliers of membrane gas separation units.
