Specialty Polymers for Membranes

Solvay Gives You The Performance You Need

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Solvay offers the largest selection of sulfone polymers and fluoropolymers for membranes. They have the solubility, purity and range of molecular weight needed to make hollow fiber, flat sheet and tubular membranes with the pore size and separation selectivity you need. Available in pellets and powders, our products cover a wide range of molecular weights with controlled viscosities, making it easier to fine-tune dope solutions and maximize process stability. Technologies range from reverse osmosis (RO) to microfiltration (MF) for symmetric and asymmetric membranes.

Toughness and chemical resistance along with hydrolytic and oxidative stability help membranes tolerate a variety of feed streams and cleaning methods. High molecular weight grades improve fiber strength and minimize fiber breakage.

FluoropolymersSulfone Polymers
  • Solef® PVDF
  • Halar® ECTFE
  • Hyflon® AD
  • Algoflon® PTFE
  • Aquivion™ PFSA
  • Udel® PSU
  • Veradel® PESU
  • Radel® PPSU

Specialty Polymers Solutions

Bioprocessing & Medical Filtration Membranes

  • Biopharmaceutical manufacturing
  • Protein separation and transport
  • Enzyme production
  • Cell harvesting
  • Virus production
  • Sterilized water production
  • Devices for artificial organs
  • Blood purification

Fluoropolymer Solutions : Solef® PVDF

Sulfone Polymers Solutions : Udel® PSU, Veradel® PESU

Food & Beverage Processing

Membrane separation processes can help increase the recovery of valuable food products while reducing the volume of waste streams generated. Typical applications include:

  • Fruit juice processing
  • Cold beer sterilization
  • Milk fraction separations
  • Protein separations
  • Bacteria removal
  • Whey concentration and demineralization


Solvay’s fluoropolymers and sulfone polymers are certified for food contact and are frequently used in applications using MF, UF, NF and RO filtration.

Radel® PPSU can withstand over 1,000 cycles of repeated steam sterilization, making it an excellent choice for membranes used in dairy applications.

Fluoropolymer Solutions : Solef® PVDF

Sulfone Polymers Solutions : Radel® PPSU, Udel® PSU, Veradel® PESU

Gas Separation Membranes

Udel® PSU

Udel® PSU was used in the early 1980’s to make the world’s first commercial gas separation membrane able to separate hydrogen from ammonia purge-gas streams. Soon after that, this material was used to make membranes for separating nitrogen and oxygen from air. Today’s gas separation membranes are made using sulfone polymers as well as fluoropolymers.

Key Features

  • Very high purity
  • Tightly controlled molecular weight
  • Good balance of permeability, selectivity and affordability for specific separation types
  • Cost-effective production of high-quality, extremely fine hollow fiber membranes

Typical Applications

  • Carbon dioxide removal (e.g., from natural gas)
  • Natural gas liquids removal and dehydration
  • Hydrogen recovery from refinery wet gas and fuel gas streams
  • Olefin/paraffin separations (e.g., propane/propylene)
  • Carbon dioxide sequestration from flue gases


Hyflon® AD

Hyflon® AD amorphous perfluoropolymers are suitable for polymeric gas separation membranes used in the separation of gases or vapors, the recovery of gases and the enrichment of air in pharmaceutical or chemical processing applications.

Fluoropolymer Solutions : Hyflon® AD


Emerging Gas Separation Applications

High-performance polymers may also have a good fit with emerging polymer membrane applications including carbon dioxide removal (e.g., from natural gas), natural gas liquids removal and dehydration, hydrogen recovery from refinery wet gas and fuel gas streams, olefin/paraffin separations (e.g., propane/propylene) and carbon dioxide sequestration from flue gases.

For those applications requiring extremely high hydrophobicity and chemical resistance, Solvay offers its fluoroploymer Halar® ECTFE.

Fluoropolymer Solutions : Halar® ECTFE

Hemodialysis Membranes

Udel® PSU

Udel® PSU is used around the world to make dialysis membranes, which serve as artificial kidneys for a growing number of our population. Polysulfone has become the polymer of choice for this life-saving application and offers several advantages over cellulose acetate.

  • Easy to form fine hollow fiber membranes
  • Dope solution stability
  • Excellent biocompatibility
  • Sterilizeable by steam, ethylene oxide and e-beam radiation

Udel® P-3500 LCD MB is a tough high-strength grade that's well-suited for dialysis membranes. Its low level of cyclic dimer can improve the stability and shelf life of dope solutions. A range of narrow molecular weights with controlled viscosities makes it easier to fine-tune dope solutions and optimize your membrane manufacturing process.

Veradel® PESU

Veradel® PESU offers many of the same features as Udel polysulfone with the added benefit of high heat resistance.

Specialty polysulfone grades are also available for manufacturers using PVP (polyvinylpyrrolidone).

Sulfone Polymers Solutions : Udel® PSU, Veradel® PESU

Water Treatment Membranes

High-Pressure Filtration

Udel® PSU has long been the industry standard for making the support layers used in the production of RO and NF thin-film composite membranes. Udel P-3500 LCD MB is used around the world for making high-pressure water filtration membranes.

Key Features

  • Cost-effective processing by solution casting
  • Excellent mechanical properties
  • Stable at pH levels from 2-13
  • Outstanding hydrolytic stability
  • Excellent caustic resistance
  • Good resistance to moderate concentrations of chlorine
  • Low levels of extractible and insoluble materials
  • Global agency approvals

Low-Pressure Filtration

Solef® PVDF has become an industry standard for submerged UF and MF hollow fiber membrane systems, especially in the rapidly growing membrane bioreactor (MBR) segment.

Key Features

  • Outstanding processability with a large number of grades
  • Excellent impact strength and mechanical properties
  • Good resistance to organic fouling
  • Stable at pH levels from 1 to 11
  • Excellent chlorine resistance
  • Excellent UV resistance
  • Very high purity
  • Global agency approvals

Udel® PSU and Veradel® PESU  are Sulfone Polymers for Membranes used specifically to make encased UF and MF membranes.

Algoflon® DF powders are easily expanded after the extrusion of the polymeric matrix without the use of soluble fillers, foaming agents or chemical additives. This process generates the physical creation of a huge number of small pores in the structure of an object made of PTFE resulting in new outstanding properties.

In particular uniaxially stretched tubes are used for the manufacture of hollow fiber membranes for liquid filtration(such as water treatment),while multiaxially stretched membranes have several applications which include gaskets, filters for filtration of gases and liquids and membranes for fuel cells.

Fluoropolymer Solutions : Solef® PVDF, Algoflon® DF Powders

Sulfone Polymers Solutions : Udel® PSU, Veradel® PESU