Carbon membranes can be applied to several process steps in natural gas, biogas or flue gas treatment. The significant more expensive inorganic membranes must have a higher separation performance compared to the polymeric membranes. Because of its resistance to solvents, pressure and temperature inorganic membranes have a chance in the marketplace. The predominant transport mechanism is molecular sieving (MSCM). Graphitic carbon do have lattice plane distances in the range of small gas molecules. Different steps in the production process allowed controlling the size of pores. High separation factors in gas mixtures were achieved. Reproducibility in the fabrication process is an unsolved problems. Carbon membranes showed a robust performance also in presence of impurities like H2O and H2S.

High membrane costs hinders large scale application of microporous ceramic membranes. Preparation on elements of large specific membrane area are a prospective strategy to overcome this problem. NF membranes with a cut-off of 450 Da were produced for first time in a 163-channel tube geometry of 1.25 m². The membranes were successful tested in drink water production and in treatment of produced water from oil production. Zeolite-NaA-membranes were prepared for the first time inside of 1.2 m long tubes in four channel geometry of 0.9 m². Natural gas is dried by stripping with triethylene glycol (TEG). TEG will be regenerated by distillation at 190°C to 205°C. A pilot plant for TEG drying with Zeolite-NaAmembranes at 120°C for a capacity of 10.000 m³/h natural gas and is running since October 2016.