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Autre Publication Scientifique Année : 2008

Release of organic compounds from polyethylene pipes to drinking water

Résumé

Polyethylene (PE) pipes are becoming nowadays a standard way to transport and distribute drinking water. However, the use of PE pipes in distribution networks and household installations causes a contamination of the drinking water. A modelling work of this contamination in distribution networks was conducted using EPANET. Since the original version of the program was not able to model properly the release of compounds from the pipe material to the water, EPANET source code was modified and a new version was developed, which could compute the concentration in the water of these migrants released from the pipe material. Three network case studies were investigated using this modelling tool: a small network under construction (400 consumers), a middle-sized network with simple geometry (30,000 consumers) and a large network with complex geometry (370,000 consumers). The study focuses on the release from the pipe of the antioxidants Irganox 1010 and Irgafos 168, which have a saturation concentration in the water of about 310.10-6 g/L. Two diffusion coefficients in the water of the compounds released (D[w,i]) were modelled: 10-10 and 10-9 m2/s. The simulations showed that the transport distance of the water in the network is a key parameter governing the degree of contamination. Profiles of migrant concentration increasing from the closest to the furthest locations from the source(s) were particularly observed for the middle-sized and the large network cases. Saturation levels in migrant were computed to reach 50% when D[w,i] = 10-10 m2/s and up to almost 100% when D[w,i] = 10-9 m2/s in the areas the furthest from the source(s). The residence time of the water in the network was not found to be a major reason for contamination, except in cases with significantly over-dimensioned pipes (e.g. network under construction). The modelling work also showed that the existence of elevated tank(s) in a network affect the variations of the contamination level along the day. Different half-lives of the migrants were investigated but no clear conclusion was made because of the high uncertainties on the actual degradation rate of these migrants. Finally, no validation of the model with field measurements was possible during the study work, although it was tried based on Non Volatile Organic Carbon measurements.
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Dates et versions

hal-00936460 , version 1 (26-01-2014)

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  • HAL Id : hal-00936460 , version 1

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Laurent Coron. Release of organic compounds from polyethylene pipes to drinking water. 2008. ⟨hal-00936460⟩
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