Ion exchange membrane related processes towards carbon capture, utilization and storage: Current trends and perspectives

The increasing emission of CO2 from various industry sectors has broken the original balance of the carbon cycle in the earth, leading to the exacerbated greenhouse effect and a complex and changeable climate. To address this critical challenge, the CO2 capture and utilization techniques have attracted extensive attention with regards to the reduction of the emissions of anthropogenic greenhouse gases in the atmosphere and the conversion of CO2 into high value-add products. Among the various carbon capture and conversion technologies, the ion exchange membrane plays an important role by taking advantage of the high perm-selectivity of the membrane and is crucial to achieving the net-zero greenhouse gas emissions goals. This review summarizes the recent developments on ion exchange membranes towards carbon reduction applications. The related ion exchange membrane processes such as electrodialysis (ED), bipolar membrane electrodialysis (BMED), metathesis electrodialysis (EDM), CO2 electrochemical reduction, etc for CO2 capture and utilization are comprehensively reviewed. Furthermore, the ion exchange membrane related energy harvest, storage, and conversion processes including reverse electrodialysis (RED), water electrolysis, fuel cells, and redox flow batteries are briefly highlighted. Finally, the existing challenges and perspectives of those membrane technologies for carbon reduction are discussed and proposed. The intention of this paper is to draw the attention of academia, industry, and government to take advantage of the unique merits of the ion exchange membrane for carbon capture, utilization, and storage.