Life Cycle Analysis for Water and Wastewater Pipe Materials
Publication: Journal of Environmental Engineering
Volume 139, Issue 5
Abstract
A life cycle analysis (LCA) was performed for six commonly used types of water and wastewater pipe materials: polyvinyl chloride (PVC), ductile iron, cast iron, high density polyethylene (HDPE), concrete, and reinforced concrete. The objectives were to (1) compare the six pipe materials in terms of global warming potential (GWP) through four LCA phases: pipe production, transport, installation, and use; (2) determine the primary source(s) of differences in LCA results; and (3) examine the effectiveness of currently used pipe size selection criteria when LCA GWP is considered. The results for unit lengths of discrete pipe sizes were used to generate functions relating GWP per kilometer of pipe to diameter and material selections. The LCA results were monetized using an emission penalty of ton of . For pipe diameters , GWP due to pipe manufacture, transport, and installation of ductile iron pipe was the largest among the six materials. At diameters , the GWP of PVC was highest. Concrete pipe resulted in the lowest GWP across the entire range of pipe sizes investigated. The GWP for pipe production, transport, and installation in a high-growth planning area in southeast Tucson, Arizona, was approximately one-tenth of the GWP derived from pipe network operation. The lifetime GWP from production, transport, and installation increased monotonically with pipe diameter for all materials analyzed, whereas, for a given flow, GWP from energy loss due to friction in flow simulations was inversely related to pipe diameter. The tradeoff suggests that there is an optimum diameter that minimizes lifetime GWP. However, optimum pipe sizes based on GWP were similar to pipe diameters selected based on economic cost alone, suggesting that LCA of water distribution and wastewater collection systems will not yield major changes in criteria for selection of pipe size.
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Acknowledgments
This material is based in part upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. 083590. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the NSF.
Thanks to the City of Tucson and Pima County Regional Wastewater Reclamation Department for assistance throughout the project. Thanks also to Malcolm Pirnie and the WateReuse Foundation for initial development of the DSS used here to calculate pipe sizes and energy costs.
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Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Environmental Engineering
Volume 139 • Issue 5 • May 2013
Pages: 703 - 711
Copyright
© 2013 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Feb 21, 2012
Accepted: Aug 7, 2012
Published online: Aug 18, 2012
Published in print: May 1, 2013
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