Two membrane-rdated research projects are now being developed in Japan and their main target is to develop new inorganic membranes. The first project is the R & D of membranes for carbon dioxide recovery at high temperature, conducted by the Japan Fine Ceramics Center (JFCC) and Japan Fine Ceramics Association (JFCA) under the supervision by the New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO). The second one is the R & D of membranes for petroleum refinery and chemical processes, conducted by the Japan High Polymer Center (JHPC) under the supervision by the Petroleum Energy Center (PEC). Cooperating with these projects researchers in many universities and research institutes have been publishing many interesting data of inorganic membranes manufactured by various methods. Many such results are summarized and reported.

• Kimura Shoji(Dept. of Chemical Engineering, Osaka University 1-3 Machikaneyama, Toyonaka 560, Japan)