A review of gas-liquid separation technologies: Separation mechanism, application scope, research status, and development prospects

Various industrial fields use gas-liquid separation, but due to the variety of gas-liquid separation technologies, no comprehensive review has been conducted. This paper systematically reviews the separation mechanism, application ranges, research status, and development prospects of various separation techniques. The challenges associated with each gas-liquid separation technology are presented. This review indicates that future research should focus on the droplet-droplet and droplet-gas interaction mechanisms and the formation and breakup mechanisms of liquid films. Future experimental efforts should focus on investigating gas-liquid two-phase flow fields including droplet size distribution, phase distribution, and velocity distribution. A promising development direction is to combine several gas-liquid separation technologies to expand their range of applications. An increased knowledge of the relationship between the flow field and separation performance would guide the standardized design of the gas-liquid separators.