Fossil Fuels Processing by Membrane Operations

Control of anthropogenic emissions of greenhouse gases (GHG) is one of the most challenging environmental issues related to global climate change. The larger part of emissions are coming from fossil fuels. The Energy Information Administration (EIA) 2010 predicted a 49 % increase of energy demands from 2007 to 2035 following more and more countries becoming industrialized. The International Energy Outlook 2010 reference case reported that world energy-related carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions would increase from 29.7 billion metric tons in 2007 to 33.8 billion metric tons in 2020 and 42.4 billion metric tons in 2035 (IEO 2010). The emissions of the greenhouse gas CO₂ is produced in a variety of ways as shown in Table 1 (Hay and Firman 2002). Among them, fossil fuel power plants are responsible for roughly 40 % of total CO₂emissions, and coal-fired power plants being the main contributor. Changing from fossil energy to alternative renewable energy would be ideal; however, we will still...