Borouge is now an official member of the PE100+ Association, an industry organisation comprising polyethylene (PE) manufacturers, of which Borealis, Borouge’s parent company, is also a member. Borouge’s Borstar® HE3490-LS (black) pipe grade, manufactured in Ruwais (UAE) passed the second round of testing required to join the “PE100+ Quality materials” list.

Established in 1999, the PE100+ Association’s main objective is to guarantee consistent quality at the highest level in the production and use of PE100 pipe materials. The Association has an Advisory Committee comprising representatives from the gas and water industries, pipe and fitting manufacturers and contractors. Although their main roles are market guidance and feedback, the committee helps ensure that industry requirements are fulfilled.

The Association issues the list of high performance grades on a regular basis through the monitoring of the most critical properties mainly the Creep Rupture Strength, Stress Crack Resistance and Resistance to Rapid Crack Propagation. The qualification procedure involves two rounds of stringent testing, with a “batch list” of pipes submitted to Gastec, the administrator, for selection. Reconfirming tests are conducted every seven months. The pipes undergo a pipe notch, internal pressure and S4 tests.

Joining PE100+ will be a good leverage tool for Borouge to achieve step changes in many countries where the company is a key operator. Seminars will be organised on behalf of PE100+ Association in the Middle East and Asia Pacific regions. Over time, technical requirements of PE100+ Association would become the references in many countries where local standards and project specification are outdated.

Borouge manufactures this PE100 material in Ruwais complex (200 kilometres of Abu Dhabi city, UAE) since 2003 under the Borstar® technology. The production unit has a capacity of 320KT a year. This qualification demonstrates the excellent capability of the Borstar® process for the most stringent application in the Pipe segment.

All information on PE100+ Association on www.PE100plus.net