Polyolefin pipe grades with improved resistance to water disinfectants

Session 7A
4:30 pm

Heinz E.P. Vogt, Basell Polyolefine GmbH

Water is essential for human life. Worldwide more than one billion people do not have access to a safe water supply. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that more than 4,000 people die each day from diarrheal diseases resulting from unsafe water and lack of sanitation. Ninety percent are children under the age of five who live in developing countries. Disinfection of the drinking water helps to destroy disease-causing micro-organisms. Widely used water disinfectants are strong oxidizers like chlorine gas, sodium- or calcium-hypochlorite, chlorine dioxide or ozone. From many publications it is known that chlorinated water may have a strong influence on the physical properties and the life time of plastic pipes. In most of these papers aqueous hypochlorite solutions are used, but less information are available on chlorine dioxide.

In a comparative lab study the influence of chlorinated water – using aqueous hypochlorite and chlorine dioxide solutions for chlorination – on different polyolefin pipe grades has been investigated. The better understanding of the ageing mechanism enabled the development of polyolefin pipe materials with further improved chlorine resistance.

Heinz E. P. Vogt
HansJörg Nitz
Ulrich Schulte
Basell Polyolefine GmbH, Germany