The Water Fiberglass Pipe – Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow

Humans have been building pipes since 4,000 B.C.
Finding a sustainable solution matters more than ever.

A Quick History Of The Water Pipe

Indus River Valley, 4,000 – 3,000 BCE
Clay pipes
Ancient Crete/Minoa, 3,000 – 2,150 BCE
Wood pipes
Egypt, 2,500 – 2,150 BCE
Copper pipes
Ancient Greece, 538 – 522 BCE
First true aqueducts (underground terracotta pipes)
Ancient Rome, 312 BCE – 226 CE

11 aqueducts constructed with:

• Stone
• Terracotta
• Wood
• Leather
• Lead
• Bronze

Today, there’s more than 2.2 million miles of water pipe in the US

That’s enough pipe to complete 4.5 round trips to the moon!

But even with these advances, there’s a water main break approximately every two minutes in the U.S.

America’s infrastructure is in need of an overhaul

That’s why US communities will invest nearly $8.5 billion in building, replacing, and rehabilitating drinking water pipe networks in 2024 – How did we get here?

Historical pipe material usage & Average Life Expectancy*
*Average life expectancy of pipe can be influenced by a number of factors including social conditions, medical care, etc.

Steel Pipes – 1820

Longevity: 85 years – Due to the corrosion, actual life span may be significantly reduced to less than 50 years

Sustainability: Compared with PCCP, steep pipe has:

• 64% larger CO2 emissions from manufacturing
• 32% larger footprint due to greater energy used during manufacturing

Why innovation is needed

• Comparably expensive to other pipes
• Poor thermal conductivity
• Difficult repairs and replacements
• Corrosion issues

It took more than 100 years for the next breakthrough in water transport, iterating on steel with dual layers of concrete

Prestressed Concrete Cylinder Pipe (PCCP) – 1942

Longevity: Approximately 20 – 40 years

Sustainability: Over time, PCCP’s CO2 emissions have been reduced by:

• 75% on the fabrication phase
• 7% on the operation phase
• 43% on the disposal phase
• Why innovation is needed
• High rate of premature failure, typically occurring by sudden rupturing of the pipe wall

To reduce the PCCP’s high rate of failure, engineers introduced another solution: DIP

Ductile Iron (DIP) – 1955

Longevity: 55 years

Sustainability: 

• Extremely large environmental impact
• 681 kg of CO2 gas emission from every 3 meters of DIP carrying drinking water

Why innovation is needed

• Iron pipe wall thickness has been reduced by 76% from 1908 to 1991
• Thinner DIPs leads to higher corrosion risks and reduces its lifespan to just 11 – 14 years
• Corroded DIPs leads to developmental delays in infants, kidney, liver, and bone damage in adults and 42% reduction in plant root growth

Sometimes referred to as the Tesla of pipe, Hobas FRP has spent 30+ years transporting high pressure water around the world

Hobas Fiberglass Reinforced Polymer Mortar (FRPM) – 1960

Longevity:

• 150+ years
• Fiberglass pipe can be utilized for both new and existing water mains and wastewater pipelines
  Adds an additional 150+ years to the lifespan with minimal disruption

Sustainability:

• Lowest carbon footprint of any other water piping system
• 579.3 kg of CO2/m
• As of February 20, 2024, the Federal Government announced $5.8 billion in funding for updating municipal water infrastructure.

It’s time to get your municipality ready for the pipes of the future

Why We Need The Water Pipe To Keep Evolving And Improving

Slash wasted water

Currently in the US:

• We lose 6 billion gallons of treated water per day
• Enough to fill 9,000+ swimming pools
• Of the nation’s 2.2 million total miles of drinking water pipe, only around 12,000 miles—or 0.5%—are replaced each year, equating to a 200-year replacement cycle
• Restore aging infrastructure with future-proof materials
• We are 75 years into an infrastructure only designed to last 50 years

150 year+ pipes:

• Cut maintenance needs
• Reduce odor emissions
• Prevent catastrophic sinkholes in roads and streets
• Cut carbon impacts for a sustainable future
• Allows for upfitting of aging municipal infrastructure with a lower carbon footprint

Includes:

• Old city sewers
• Culverts
• Channels

To focus on long-term sustainability strategies, municipalities are leaning into:

• Chief Resilience Officers
• Chief ESG Officers
• Chief Sustainability Officers
• For municipalities demanding safe and reliable infrastructure, fiberglass reinforced polymer is the water infrastructure of the future.

Sources

infrastructurereportcard.org
whatispiping.com/concrete-pipe
dipra.org/docs/seismic-considerations
digitalcommons.usu.edu/water_rep/682
dipra.org/about-ductile-iron-pipe/sustainability
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tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10962247.2016.1154487
sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S266691102200017X
ngwa.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/gwat.12958
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sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S2352012422006233
latimes.com/business/hiltzik/la-fi-hiltzik-pccp-20170824-story.html
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pci.org/PCI_Docs/Publications/PCI%20Journal/1965/August-1965/Design%20of%20Prestressed%20Concrete%20Pressure%20Pipe.pdf