By: Robert Colvin

Prejudice against thermoplastics can be hard to overcome, as a leading supplier of PE100 found when it had to fight to have its own contractor use pipe made from the material.

MEED Projects, an information service that monitors investment projects in the Gulf region, reports that building and construction in the Middle East has risen 49% in the last 12 months to more than $2 trillion for the first time. This growth comes despite fears that rising construction costs could lead to a slowdown in new projects. The U.A.E. remains the largest market in the region with 37% of all project value, says Simon Howard, general manager of MEED.

Such dynamic growth can be seen in plastics pipe demand. Yet one such project shows the continuing uphill battle polyolefins in this sector often face, even in a region flooded with polymer output where one would expect ready acceptance of plastics pipe over conventional materials. Polyolefins producer Borouge, the joint venture between Middle Eastern oil producer ADNOC and Borealis, supplier of plastics including pipe-grade PE100 high-density polyethylene, has had to do some skillful persuasion and gentle arm twisting to get its own contractor to consider PE100 pipes as the best and most economical solution for large-diameter cooling-water pipe systems for its most recent expansion, Borouge 2, scheduled to come on stream by 2010. Senior technical manager for Borouge 2, Olof Lindgren, says the joint venture asked its then contractor to consider using PE pipes during the original Borouge 1 construction, but since the contractor had no experience with thermoplastics it opted for GRP (glass-reinforced plastics’ epoxy, vinylester, thermoset polyester) for the 2000-mm diameter seawater lines. Since the plant opened in late 2001, it has experienced some failures of GRP pipe and connections.

"The [Borouge 2] project managing contractor (Foster Wheeler, London-Ed.) needed to be convinced of the use of plastics; GRP was a known animal but PE100 was something new," Lindgren says. When the Borouge 2 project came into the study and design phase in late 2004, the company was determined to use PE100 for the expansion of the Ruwais, production facility.

As a means of convincing its contractor, Borouge had to produce a study showing that its own product, PE100, would be the most efficient and long-lasting material to use for the system, which is more than twice as large as the original one installed in neighboring Borouge 1. When completed, the pipe system will supply more than 100,000 cubic meters of cooling water at a pressure of about 3 bar.

The 25 km of 1.6m-diameter pipe required the conversion of 8000 tonnes of PE100 by Abu Dhabi processor Union Pipes Industry (UPI), says company general manager Mohamed Hageb. Working in two 12-hour shifts with a staff of 150, UPI is extruding PE100 pipe made from Borstar 3490LS on its latest investment, a BEX1500MM extruder from Battenfeld Extrusionstechnik.

But the challenges of extruding such pipe in Abu Dhabi's hot, humid climate can be daunting. Roger Jepson, UPI technical manager, says that to ensure quality standards of the end product, his company needs to dry the PE pellets before processing to reduce moisture that can be picked up during storage.

JIT delivery-a challenge overcome
JIT delivery is another challenge UPI has been able to meet with a detailed, time-defined production and distribution plan. Pipes are extruded from an open-ended production hall into a holding yard, cut into 24m lengths, and three pipe lengths are loaded onto trucks for delivery at night to Ruwais, 250 km way. The extrusion and delivery project continues until October, when final delivery will be made, says Jepson. Seven-year-old UPI, with a total capacity of 30,000 tonnes/yr exclusively processing PE100 has a market share of 16% of the total pipe market in the region. UPI's experience with the Borouge 2 production should help promote future PE100 use for other projects that would traditionally turn to metal or GRP, says M.V. Bhushanam, UPI's marketing & projects manager. 

"We see big demand for PE100 in the future for gas delivery as well as pressure water since Abu Dhabi is expanding housing projects and manmade island communities built out into the sea," he says.

Borouge's Lindgren believes PE is much more resilient than competitive materials and easier to install in lengths double that possible with GRP. "PE requires only half the number of welds compared to GRP, which needs to have lamination connections," he says. These in the past have proven to be the weak points in pipe systems.