{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,20]],"date-time":"2026-07-20T10:29:50Z","timestamp":1784543390181,"version":"3.55.0"},"reference-count":51,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"12","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2025,12,3]],"date-time":"2025-12-03T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1764720000000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Membranes"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Natural gas is currently increasingly used in an energy transition framework and systematically requires upgrading processes in order to respect pipeline specifications. Carbon dioxide, and in some case hydrogen sulfide removal, is the major target of the purification step and can be achieved thanks to gas liquid absorption with chemical solvents or membrane separation. A systematic comparison of the cheap, currently used polymeric membranes and an expensive, high-performance zeolite material is reported on a natural gas upgrading case study (CH4\/CO2 mixture), thanks to a dedicated process synthesis and optimization code (MIND). The zeolite membrane is shown to offer a simple, cost-effective one-stage process, while polymeric materials require more expensive classical two-stage processes. In a second step the impact of concentration polarization is more specifically investigated, through a process simulation study. The zeolite membrane remains the simplest, best cost-effective and most interesting process (one stage without compression, expander or vacuum pump).<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/membranes15120372","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2025,12,3]],"date-time":"2025-12-03T08:44:28Z","timestamp":1764751468000},"page":"372","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":2,"title":["High-Performance Zeolite Membranes and Natural Gas Upgrading"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"15","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0009-0009-6979-1756","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Margarita","family":"Kuznetsova","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Universit\u00e9 de Lorraine, CNRS, LRGP, F-54000 Nancy, France"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-2202-3943","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Christophe","family":"Castel","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Universit\u00e9 de Lorraine, CNRS, LRGP, F-54000 Nancy, France"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-4843-8709","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Bernardetta","family":"Addis","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Universit\u00e9 de Lorraine, CNRS, LORIA, F-54000 Nancy, France"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-3357-9608","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Veronica","family":"Piccialli","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Dipartimento di Ingegneria Civile e Ingegneria Informatica, Universit\u00e0 degli Studi di Roma Tor Vergata, Viale del Politecnico 1, 00133 Rome, Italy"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-4400-1921","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Eric","family":"Favre","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Universit\u00e9 de Lorraine, CNRS, LRGP, F-54000 Nancy, France"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2025,12,3]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"46","DOI":"10.1016\/j.ijggc.2013.04.012","article-title":"Current Challenges in Membrane Separation of CO2 from Natural Gas: A Review","volume":"17","author":"Adewole","year":"2013","journal-title":"Int. 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