Arkema and Polymem to jointly market UF membrane technology

Arkema, a global chemical company, and Polymem, a French SME specialising in the manufacture of filtration modules from hollow fibre membranes, have jointly developed a new ultrafiltration (UF) hydrophilic membrane technology to produce high quality water over the long term.
 
This ultrafiltration technology using membranes manufactured by Polymem from a brand new nanostructured Kynar PVDF polymer developed by Arkema, makes the treatment of water using membranes more effective and less energy-intensive. The aim of the partnership is both to speed up the commercial development of this UF membrane technology boasting durable hydrophilic properties, and to make it accessible to other water treatment players without delay. This technology has been proven by an ultrafiltration demonstrator manufactured by Polymem.
 
As a water treatment technology, membrane filtration is being adopted by many plants for recycling municipal and industrial wastewater, for drinking water, or for pre-treatment in seawater desalination. The water is fed at low pressure through thousands of semi-permeable and porous hollow fibres that retain suspended solids, impurities, bacteria and viruses. Today, one of the materials that is most widely used for these membranes is PVDF.