Gas Separation Membranes 

Udel® polysulfone (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 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.

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.

Fluoropolymers: Solef® PVDF  |  Hylar® PVDF  |  Halar® ECTFE

Sulfone Polymers: Udel® PSU  |  Radel® PPSU  |  Veradel® PESU