1. Background and general principles

The general problem of choosing and designing a process for separating a gas mixture covers a wide range of situations and industrial sectors. For example, the treatment of natural resources (purification of natural gas and biogas, extraction of helium), the separation of gases from air (production of nitrogen, oxygen, argon), the fractionation of industrial gas streams (iron and steel industry, refining, gasification, chemicals, energy), production of oxygen-enriched air or recovery of anesthetic gases in hospitals, treatment of waste gases to meet environmental standards for atmospheric discharge and recycling of volatile compounds, the inerting of fuel tanks (including in aeronautics), the treatment of indoor atmospheres in on-board devices (submarines, space shuttles), domestic or portable devices for respiratory assistance or the treatment of indoor pollution in buildings, show, in...