The potential of a nitrogen-selective membrane for postcombustion CO2 capture from a coal-fired power plant was investigated in this study. Bi-objective optimization was performed using the nondominated sorting genetic algorithm II (NSGA-II) to simultaneously minimize energy consumption and membrane surface area requirement with targets of >90% CO2 capture and 95% purity. The properties of the nitrogen-selective membrane used in the calculation are based on measurements of nitrogen and hydrogen transport in vanadium at high temperatures (ca. 600 degrees C). The lowest energy consumption was found to be 1.1 Gpmetric ton CO2 with a hybrid nitrogen- and CO2-selective membrane system. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.