Flexible polybutylene based plumbing systems are demonstrating their ability not only to bring installation and performance benefits but also to measure up to increasingly demanding sustainability criteria. Hepworth Plumbing Products, whose Hep2O® push-fit system leads the market, points to the system’s proven long term performance, minimal environmental impact and ability to be recycled as key factors attracting the attention of specifiers.
Explains Richard Eddy product manager for Hep2O®: “The performance of polybutylene pipes has been proven through long-standing, trouble-free service in applications worldwide. Polybutylene has been used in pipe applications for over 30 years. Indeed, in Austria and Germany, district heating and underfloor heating schemes of the early 1970s are still providing trouble-free operation.”
Key factors considered in determining sustainability include the negative impact a product may have during manufacture and use. Polybutylene is produced from crude oil by refining and polymerisation. The polymer is then extruded to create the finished pipe. The environmental impact of the production process, in terms both of energy usage and emissions, is markedly less than is the case for alternative metal pipe systems and many other plastics.
In common with other polyolefin thermoplastics, polybutylene can also be readily recycled, if required – either for use in the manufacture of new products or as a combustion fuel.
Pipe production is managed to minimise waste. In addition BS7291 allows the use of reworked material in the manufacture of polybutylene pipes and associated fittings. Such material must be compiled from the manufacturer’s own clean reworked material and be of the same grade as any material to which it is added.
Production waste can be regranulated and used to manufacture ‘lower’ specification products.
Incineration of polybutylene does not produce harmful by-products. Polybutylene has a similar thermal value as heating oil and significantly better than coal. It does not produce toxic or corrosive gases.
Says Richard Eddy: “Recent years have seen a massive increase in the use of flexible push-fit systems based on Polybutylene and the ability to match today’s environmental criteria provides a further driver to market share growth.”
