Membrane considerations and plant design for pre-combustion CO₂ capture

The continuous increment of energy demand and carbon fuel utilization contribute at CO₂ emission in atmosphere, causing an increment of environmental temperature with consecutive climatic change. Several technologies have been proposed for reducing CO₂ emission, from energetic efficiency to the development of renewable energies and carbon capture and storage (CCS). CCS technologies focus on the reduction of CO₂ in the atmosphere or from industrial flue gases, by separating, transporting, and storing CO₂ into underground reservoirs. The separation of CO₂ from flue gas is an important aspect of CCS. CO₂ can be typically separated using a variety of techniques, depending on the emission source: after the fuel combustion (e.g., coal power plants) or in precombustion conditions (e.g., gasification/water-gas shift reactions). This chapter emphasises on the CO₂ capture from precombustion streams with the aid of membranes, in order to give an update on the technology development.