Membrane separation is a promising technology for CO₂ separation and capture because of the high energy efficiency, small footprint and operational simplicity. A CO₂ facilitated transport membrane is an important group of membranes for CO₂ separation. In this review, the facilitated transport mechanism is described in conjunction with the chemical reactions of CO₂ and amine carriers. A wide range of facilitated transport membranes is discussed, including amine-based fixed-site carrier membranes, amine mobile carrier-containing membranes and other facilitated transport membranes with different types of carriers and/or inorganic fillers to further improve the performance of facilitated transport membranes. This review concludes with remarks on the future perspectives of the facilitated transport membranes for CO₂ separation and capture applications.

CO₂ capture from coal- or natural gas-derived flue gas has been widely considered as the next opportunity for the large-scale deployment of gas separation membranes. Despite the tremendous progress made in the synthesis of polymeric membranes with high CO₂/N₂ separation performance, only a few membrane technologies were advanced to the bench-scale study or above from a highly idealized laboratory setting. Therefore, the recent progress in polymeric membranes is reviewed in the perspectives of capture system energetics, process synthesis, membrane scale-up, modular fabrication, and field tests. These engineering considerations can provide a holistic approach to better guide membrane research and accelerate the commercialization of gas separation membranes for post-combustion carbon capture.

Membrane and membrane process have been widely considered as one of the best candidates for mitigating CO₂ emissions from the combustion or utilization of fossil fuels. Various amine‐containing polymers constitute an important class of membranes, where the highly selective CO₂ transport is achieved by the facilitated transport mechanism. In this review, the amine–CO₂ chemistry is discussed in conjunction with the mechanism of the reaction‐mediated CO₂ transport. A wide variety of amine‐containing polymers are discussed based on two synthesis motifs: (a) polyamines with amino groups covalently bound to the polymer backbone and (b) small molecule amines embedded in a polymer matrix. This review concludes with the remarks on the facilitated transport membranes for post‐combustion carbon capture (CO₂/N₂) and hydrogen purification (CO₂/H₂).