Post-combustion carbon capture by membrane separation, Review

•The state of membrane separation in post-combustion capture (PCC) was reviewed.•Both experimental membranes and commercially available membrane modules were included.•Pilot-scale experiments of membrane-based PCC were discussed.•Important factors for membrane-based PCC were identified.•The potential of individual materials and modules for membrane-based PCC was compared. The human-induced increase in average global temperature since pre-industrial times (1850–1900 average) has already reached 1.0 °C in 2017 so there is a strong call for effective carbon capture and storage/utilization technology especially in the energy sector where the CO2 emissions are the largest. Membrane technologies are often declared to be a good option. This work tries to find how the commercially available modules are doing from the economical and practical point of view and if there are some new membrane materials which could be feasible and practically applicable in the power plat post-combustion CO2 separation. The main conclusion is that membrane technology is potentially suitable for fuel gas purification in the future but there are still some issues to be solved such as for example membrane resistance for humid feed stream, fouling and long-term stability of thin selective layer.