Recent advances and emerging applications of membrane contactors

Separation and purification processes with high energy efficiency are crucial from an economic and environmental perspective. As a promising candidate, a membrane contactor (MC) could offer a special separation and purification platform for various applications due to its merits such as a large contact area per unit volume, individually controllable operating parameters, operational simplicity, and a small plant footprint. In this review, we introduced the latest and promising MC-based applications such as gas treatment for carbon dioxide (CO₂) capture and sulfur dioxide (SO₂) capture, the recovery and removal of methane (CH₄) and ammonia (NH₃), and unique processes regarding juice concentration and dealcoholization. When dealing with each application, we focused on discussing the strategies to enhance the separation and purification performance from the materials and process perspectives of the MC, mainly including wettability modifications and flexible operation condition set-up. Finally, this review also discusses the remaining challenges for further development and future commercialization. Besides the mentioned applications, the applications related to a bio-process were highlighted as a novel field where MCs could be used, demonstrating the versatile role of MCs in new fields.