Sabic has begun manufacturing thermoplastic grades at its affiliates in Jubail and Yanbu in Saudi Arabia, and in Gelsenkirchen, Germany, which it says could revolutionise the domestic pipelines sector with environmentally responsible applications ranging from transporting potable water to gas and sewage.
The company is currently engaged with the local authorities, seeking to encourage them to construct pipelines for potable water distribution systems using these plastic grades to enhance service standards for the community.
The plastic resins go by the technical name of bimodal high density polyethylene (HDPE). “The Sabic-branded HDPE pipe demonstrates the company’s sustainability efforts by allowing clean transportation of drinking water, avoiding soil contamination from sewage, besides several other advantages such as providing viable solutions for future challenges of conveying energy and gas, clean drinking water, and wastewater,” the company said.
Explaining the qualities of the product, Khaled Al Mana, executive vice president, Sabic Polymers Strategic Business Unit, said that plastic pipes are safe, cost-effective and earthquake-resistant with good tensile strength. The specially designed pipe grade is light-weight and as a result, requires much less energy to produce and transport. “These are benefits that eventually flow down to the community in keeping with our commitment to develop products and applications that respond to societal needs,” he said.
Sami Al Osaimi, general manager, Global HDPE Business Unit, Sabic Polymers Strategic Business Unit, said “Sabic’s HDPE range offers exceptional value and is superior in many ways to similar imported products. They deliver exceptional low sag performance for large-diameter pipes and pressure pipes with a low standard dimension ratio.”
HDPE offers excellent resistance to slow crack growth propagation in high-pressure pipe applications and can therefore be used with advanced trenchless pipe installation technologies such as re-lining, horizontal directional drilling and guided boring.
HDPE pipes enable savings in the transport, installation and use phase that contribute to an overall significantly better environmental performance than the industry accepted standard of more traditional material, Sabic says.
Sabic is supported by 18 global technology and innovation centres that provide significant and measureable advantages to customers, end users and the community.
Headquartered in Riyadh, Sabic was founded in 1976 when the Saudi Arabian Government decided to use the hydrocarbon gases associated with its oil production as the principal feedstock for production of chemicals, polymers and fertilisers.
The Saudi Government owns 70 per cent of Sabic shares with the remaining 30 per cent held by private investors in Saudi Arabia and other GCC countries.
