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8 min ago 2 min read
Researchers at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (Kaust) have developed technology that allows membranes to contain more than 90% metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) material.
While highly-porous MOFs have long been viewed as promising alternatives to energy-intensive industrial separation processes, their performance has been difficult to maintain when moving from laboratory demonstrations to large-scale manufacturing.
Kaust researchers, together with academic collaborators in China and France, have developed a new architecture that allows membranes to contain more MOF material while remaining flexible, durable, and compatible with existing manufacturing methods. Their research was published in Nature.
Traditional membranes require polymers to hold materials together, but adding too much polymer can reduce performance. The researchers overcame this challenge using a small molecular anchor that links MOF nanosheets with surrounding polymer chains, allowing the membrane to function as a single integrated structure.
The team successfully produced continuous membrane rolls measuring 20 metres in length using roll-to-roll manufacturing equipment at facilities in China, showing that the technology can be manufactured using processes already familiar to industry.
Professor Mohamed Eddaoudi, Professor of Chemical Science at Kaust and a corresponding author of the study, said industrial separations consume enormous amounts of energy every day.
“The challenge has never been discovering materials capable of performing these separations, but finding ways to manufacture them at the scale industry requires,” he said.
“This work provides a practical pathway for doing that and brings advanced membrane technologies much closer to real-world deployment.”
The team demonstrated strong performance across several important industrial separations, including carbon capture, hydrogen purification, and propylene purification.
Modelling conducted as part of the study suggests the technology could reduce purification costs by up to 80% compared with conventional distillation, which relies on repeatedly heating and cooling gases to separate them.
Beyond petrochemical processing, the researchers believe the membrane design could support a broad range of applications where reducing energy consumption is a priority, including carbon dioxide capture, natural gas purification, hydrogen recovery, and direct air capture.
As industries seek more efficient ways to separate and purify gases, the researchers say the new membrane design provides a scalable route for translating advanced materials research into practical technologies.
