Effects of phenolic resin pyrolysis conditions on carbon membrane performance for gas separation

This work shows that the gas separation performance of phenolic resin-based carbon membranes can be adjusted by controlling the pyrolysis processing variables (heat treatment temperature, heating rate, soaking time and atmosphere). A large variety of carbon membranes for gas separation have been developed by simple carbonization of a phenolic resin film deposited on a ceramic tubular support. Thus, molecular sieve carbon membranes (MSCMs) with good capabilities towards the separation of O2–N2, CO2–CH4, CO2–N2 and olefin–paraffin mixtures as well as adsorption-selective carbon membranes (ASCMs) effective in the recovery of hydrocarbons from hydrocarbon–N2 mixtures have been obtained.