Projects
These costs could be massively reduced by rehabilitating the existing concrete pipelines in our water infrastructure. Doing so would also reduce the need to build with more new concrete, thereby reducing carbon emissions and the need to exploit other resources like sand and water.
Researchers from Western Sydney University have partnered with Australia’s two major water utilities Melbourne and Sydney Water to come up with a solution. In this project, they’ll develop a protective coating to bring old corroded pipes back to full health. Their formula will be based on the geopolymer zeolite to deliver the same, or greater, protection than existing products on the market but at one tenth of the thickness, greatly reducing the resources needed for repair and associated costs.
The coating developed in this product will also make use of glass and plastic waste, diverting these industrial and domestic waste materials from landfill and creating a circular economy. Because zeolite is abundantly available locally in Australia, this geopolymer coating product would also offer a more reliable and cost-effective supply than currently sourced products which come from overseas. In this way, the new sewer pipe coating would provide a sustainable low-carbon and circular economy solution to the problem of eroding pipes.
PROJECT PARTNERS
