Abstract The coupling of membrane separation and reaction processes is an important means to improve the process efficiency and reduce the energy consumption. Smart membranes, which can self-regulatively adjust their permeability in response to chemical and/or physical stimuli in the environments, provide an important new means for the coupling of reaction and separation processes and the process intensification. In this paper, the nature and characteristics of smart membranes, responsive principle of several typical smart membrane materials and processes including thermo-responsive, pH-responsive, alcohol-concentration- responsive, glucose-concentration-responsive and molecular-recognizable smart membranes, the advantages of their applications in the coupling of reaction and membrane separation processes, as well as the mechanism and pathway of the use of smart membranes in the coupling of reaction and separation processes for process intensification with the bioethanol fermentation reaction as a typical example of product inhibition reaction, are introduced and discussed briefly.
