RIYADH – The Saudi Basic Industries Corporation's (SABIC) has begun manufacturing thermoplastic grades at its affiliates in Jubail and Yanbu, and in Gelsenkirchen, Germany, which could revolutionize the domestic pipeline 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. Explaining the qualities of the product, Khaled Al-Mana, Executive Vice President, SABIC Polymers Strategic Business Unit, said plastic pipes are safe, cost-effective and earthquake-resistant with good tensile strength. The specially designed pipe grade is lightweight 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, further explained the technical aspects of the product, saying "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 has a history of responsibly manufacturing products, supported by 18 global technology and innovation centers that provide significant and measureable advantages to customers, end users and the community. — SG
