Meeting national standards in China: Pre-compounded PE100 for water pipelines
China has 2.8 trillion m3 of fresh water resources and ranks fourth in the world. However, its water resources per capita is only approximately 2,000m3, which is 25% of the world average, making China one of the most water scarce countries. Making matters worse, China also has serious water resources imbalance between its northern and southern regions as well as its inner (western) and coastal regions. As a result, two-thirds of Chinese cities suffer water shortages and about 300 million of its rural population do not have access to clean and safe drinking water. The national average water leakage rate of 16% from its pipe networks exacerbates the water scarcity problem.
The Guangrao City and Rural Water Supply Integration Project.
In order to further reduce the water leakage rate and protect its drinking water quality, China recently revised its GB/T13663 national standards to specify that only pre-compounded PE resin be used to produce polyethylene water pressure pipes. In the past, poor quality pipes made by mixing natural PE100 with carbon black masterbatch (CBMB) (also known as salt and pepper) often resulted in premature failures that led to water leakage and gave plastic pipes a bad image in China. Pre-compounded PE reduces the risk of mistakes during pipe production thus ensuring more consistent pipe quality enabling the utility to reap the full benefits of PE such as corrosion resistance, long operational lifetime (more than 50 years), better water quality and lower leakage rates.
Using pre-compounded PE resins to produce pipes results in better carbon black distribution, mechanical and welding properties as compared to mixing natural PE100 with CBMB. In addition, the Borouge material identification service that has successfully helped Chinese gas utilities reduce instances of counterfeit pipes can also be used for water utilities.
Pipes being unloaded on site.
A recent water supply integration project that was planned to link the water supply for Dongying City with that of rural Dingzhuang and Chenguan Town started in 2019 and is scheduled to be completed in 2020. Dongying City is located in Guangrao County in the province of Shandong, China. The plan is actually made up of four projects which will integrate the city and rural water supply. This will reduce water shortages and address water quality issues. The current water quality suffers from high water hardness, with fluorine levels that exceeded limits at some villages due to insufficient water treatment capacity.
A 55.4km pipeline mostly made up of 710mm OD SDR17 PE100 linking Dongying City Centre with the Dingzhuang Town water treatment plant aims to cater to the total water demand for Dingzhuang Town. The surplus water will then be supplied to Chenguan Town with a separate 21km PE100 pipeline of similar size from Shiji Road to Guangging Road. This will help secure the drinking water supply for 60,000 residents in the city and the surrounding 63 villages. This investment with a total value of USD55.4 million will provide a solid foundation for future expansion to cater for future growth.
Jointing a section of the pipeline.
The owner of the pipeline system selected PE100 pipes from Shandong Shengli who has been using Borouge BorSafe PE100 for almost two decades and is very comfortable and familiar with its quality, supply consistency and track record.
Borouge remains committed to supporting the China market and industry stakeholders in utilising safe and reliable pipe systems, towards achieving a more sustainable urban infrastructure growth.
(Jinghui Li is the Application Marketing Manager at Marketing Centre Infrastructure, Borouge)
