Toray Trial Shows All-Carbon CO₂ Separation Membrane Cuts Moisture Removal Costs in Biogas Purification by 70%

(Toray) Toray Industries, Inc., announced today (January 9, 2026) that it has made significant progress in a one-year trial with an all-carbon carbon dioxide (CO₂) and methane separation membrane (see note 1) to remove carbon dioxide and moisture at the biogas (note 2) production facility of a customer’s sewage plant in Osaka Prefecture. The company confirmed that moisture removal costs with this technology are around 70% (note 3) lower than those of existing technologies.

Global energy shortages and the push to decarbonize have increased demand for more efficient CO₂ separation. Toray develops all-carbon CO₂/methane separation membranes that resist chemicals and separate gases. The company targets natural gas and biogas purification and CO₂ capture from industrial exhaust. Biogas purification turns biogas into biomethane by removing impurities from gas made when waste and other feedstocks ferment. Operators must remove moisture as well as CO₂. But polymer and zeolite membranes in conventional systems break down on exposure to moisture, so facilities must first dry the gas with adsorbents. That extra step raises costs and makes it hard to scale up methane purification.

Toray looks to apply this technology beyond biogas to include streamlining natural gas purification, CO₂ separation and capture from industrial exhaust gases, and carbon dioxide capture, utilization and storage (note 4).

The company will showcase its technology at nano tech 2026 (https://www.nanotechexpo.jp/en/), which will be at Tokyo from Wednesday, January 28, through to Friday, January 30, 2026.

Toray will continue to pursue research and development in keeping with its commitment to delivering new value and contributing to social progress to help resolve global environmental, resource, and energy issues and contribute to a carbon-neutral and sustainable economy.

Part of the development work for its new technology was through a project funded by the New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization.
Notes

1. An all-carbon CO₂ and methane separation membrane forms a thin carbon membrane separation functional layer on the surface of a hollow-fiber porous carbon fiber support. Toray reduced the support fiber’s diameter to make the membrane module lighter and more compact.

2. Biogas is a mixture of CO₂ and methane produced when organic matter ferments in an oxygen-free environment. Purifying biogas by removing CO₂ and other impurities yields biomethane.

3. Toray calculated this 70% reduction by comparing the manufacturing cost required to operate moisture-removal equipment under load at a biogas production facility within a sewage plant in Osaka Prefecture with the cost when using conventional polymer membranes.

4. Carbon dioxide capture, utilization, and storage technologies are considered essential to achieve a carbon-neutral economy. Renewable energy, hydrogen, and other measures alone make it hard to reach net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, so capturing CO₂ at emission sources is increasingly important.

November 18, 2019
Toray Creates World’s First Porous Carbon Fiber with Continuous Pore Structure—New material could benefit environment by enhancing performance of advanced gas separation membranes
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