A Critical Review of Fabrication Strategies, Separation Techniques, Challenges, and Future Prospects for the Hydrogen Separation Membrane

Fossil fuels provide over 80% of the world’s current energy demand, which results in the release of large amounts of greenhouse gases (GHGs). In contrast to the emissions of GHGs caused by the combustion of fossil fuels, hydrogen combustion produces only water as a waste product. Hydrogen is a more environmentally friendly alternative fuel. The production of hydrogen energy has the potential to address energy security issues such as climate change and air pollution. There is an increasing global interest in hydrogen, particularly green hydrogen, which is produced by electrolyzing water using power derived from renewable resources. Because of falling hydrogen prices and the growing urgency of decarbonization, global demand for hydrogen, headed by the transportation and industrial sectors, might increase by about 400% by 2050. Furthermore, using environmentally friendly hydrogen will result in a reduction of 3.6 gigatonnes of total carbon dioxide emissions between 2020 and 2050. Hydrogen has the highest energy density of any known fuel, and it is widely available in enormous quantities all over the planet. It is possible that by 2050, India’s need for hydrogen will have increased by a factor of 4, accounting for more than 10% of global consumption. Steel and heavy-duty transportation are expected to account for more than 52% of overall demand growth between now and 2050. The overall market value for environmentally friendly hydrogen in India might reach $8 billion by 2030 and $340 billion by 2050. Because India’s capacity to create power from renewable sources is growing all the time, the country now can produce hydrogen from ecologically beneficial sources such as solar and wind when demand is low. Physical adsorption and polymer membranes can be employed to extract hydrogen from crude hydrogen polluted with hydrocarbons. This can be done to clean the crude hydrogen. The purity of hydrogen is an important aspect in determining whether it can be used in the energy production process. Unlike other types of separation technologies, membrane processes can be used in both mobile and small-scale applications. The membrane may function properly under a wide range of pressure and temperature extremes. The fundamental objective and goal of the separation membrane is to be used in membrane reactors for synchronous hydrogen production and purification. Other competing methods, such as pressure swing adsorption and cryogenic distillation, do not compare favorably to the membrane separation approach at lower operating temperatures. This is because membrane separation takes fewer resources than other competing technologies, particularly ones that have been around for a longer time. This article discusses the various membranes that can be used for substance separation, how hydrogen separation membranes can be made using a variety of technologies, the challenges that are inherent in doing so, and the prospects for the future, particularly in terms of increasing the efficiency of hydrogen separation.