Jeroen Wassenaar
Papers # 2016 Berlin
The environmental impact in terms of global warming potentials (GWP) and nonrenewable energy demand (NRED) of sewerage & drainage pipes based on PP-MD, PP-HM, PP-B, and concrete has been assessed using life cycle analysis methodology. It can be concluded that PP-MD and PP-HM materials are able to significantly lower both GWP and NRED of PP S&D pipes. Moreover, PP-MD has been found to provide the lowest GWP of all pipe materials investigated, whilst approaching concrete as the material with the lowest NRED.
Driven by a growing global conscience about our influence on the planet’s current and future climate and the scarcity of resources to satisfy a growing global population, product design that takes into account the product’s impact on both these factors is becoming increasingly important. In this paper a life cycle analysis is presented that looks specifically at two recently developed PP materials for S&D pipes, PP-MD and PPHM, that have been designed to lower the energy and carbon footprint of the resulting pipes. The LCA focuses on plain wall S&D pipes with a minimum ring stiffness SN >8 kN/m² and pipe diameters between 110 and 800 mm. The NRED and GWP of these new PP materials is compared to pipes based on conventional PP-B and concrete. It was found that PP-MD is able to provide the lowest GWP of all materials investigated and the lowest NRED of all plastic materials. PP-HM is able to lower the GWP and NRED compared to PP-B by 7 and 9%, respectively. Comparison of the results from this study to existing LCA’s on PP-B and concrete pipes, demonstrates a very good agreement thus underlining its accuracy and significance.
