Change search
CiteExportLink to record
Permanent link

Direct link
Cite
Citation style
  • apa
  • ieee
  • modern-language-association-8th-edition
  • vancouver
  • Other style
More styles
Language
  • de-DE
  • en-GB
  • en-US
  • fi-FI
  • nn-NO
  • nn-NB
  • sv-SE
  • Other locale
More languages
Output format
  • html
  • text
  • asciidoc
  • rtf
Comparative life cycle cost assessment of (lean) duplex stainless steel in wastewater treatment environments
KU Leuven, Belgium.
KU Leuven, Belgium.
RISE Research Institutes of Sweden, Materials and Production, Corrosion. (Insitut de la Corrosion)ORCID iD: 0000-0001-8721-8560
KU Leuven, Belgium.
Show others and affiliations
2022 (English)In: Journal of Environmental Management, ISSN 0301-4797, E-ISSN 1095-8630, Vol. 306, article id 114375Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]

Some unit operations in wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs), such as settling tanks and pipes for aeration or sludge transfer, are composed of austenitic stainless steel (EN 1.4307 or EN 1.4404) instead of galvanised or painted carbon steel to reduce the maintenance costs. The sensitivity to pitting and crevice corrosion of austenitic grades in certain WWTP environments has also led to the use of duplex grades. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the maintenance of piping systems (WWTPs) and its effect on their life cycle environmental impacts and costs (LCC) for both austenitic and duplex stainless steel grades. The final objective is to aid grade selection for piping in a WWTP environment. The considered functional unit (FU) is a complete piping system. Conventional austenitic stainless steel grades (e.g., EN 1.4404) are studied alongside duplex ones (e.g., EN 1.4362 and EN 1.4462). The calculated environmental impacts are the Global Warming Potential (GWP) and Primary Energy Demand (PED). The production, manufacturing, transport, use including maintenance activities, and end-of-life (burdens and credits) phases are included in the life cycle assessment (LCA). The maintenance activities consist of the required replacements of stainless steel piping during the lifespan of the WWTP. Thus, the service lives of the pipes included in the considered WWTP environment are determined based on long-term corrosion prediction models (power law), which predict the evolution of pit or crevice depth as a function of time. The model parameters are estimated based on own experimental results, supplemented by the existing literature. The corrosion rates determine the number and frequency of replacements, i.e., define the different scenarios of maintenance. The LCA, LCC and corrosion prediction models are then combined into a user-friendly tool, which can be used in industry for an appropriate grade selection for pipes in a WWTP environment. The tool includes several degrees of freedom such as piping distribution, water pressure, chloride content, replacement criteria, etc. The results show that using duplex stainless steel grade EN 1.4462 leads to lower GWP and PED at the end of the WWTP's service life of 40 years. This is mainly due to multiple replacements of the system's parts in wastewater with high levels of chloride (>3000 ppm) if more conventional austenitic stainless steel alloys such as EN 1.4404 are used. Leaner duplex stainless steel grades were also included in this LCC assessment. The duplex grade EN 1.4062 showed the lowest total LCC, thanks to its leaner chemical composition (i.e., lower nickel content) combined with good localized corrosion resistance.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Academic Press , 2022. Vol. 306, article id 114375
Keywords [en]
Corrosion modelling, Life cycle assessment, Wastewater treatment, aeration, chemical composition, comparative study, cost analysis, life cycle analysis, piping, replacement, wastewater treatment plant, stainless steel, steel, animal, corrosion, life cycle stage, water management, Animals, Life Cycle Stages, Water Purification
National Category
Metallurgy and Metallic Materials
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:ri:diva-58511DOI: 10.1016/j.jenvman.2021.114375Scopus ID: 2-s2.0-85123116496OAI: oai:DiVA.org:ri-58511DiVA, id: diva2:1638817
Note

Funding details: Research Fund for Coal and Steel, RFCS, 749632; Funding text 1: This research was funded by the European government in the form of a Research Fund for Coal and Steel ( RFCS ) project under grant agreement number 749632 (2017–2020): “DuplexWASTE: Lean Duplex Stainless Steel for Urban and Industrial Wastewater”.

Available from: 2022-02-17 Created: 2022-02-17 Last updated: 2023-05-26Bibliographically approved

Open Access in DiVA

No full text in DiVA

Other links

Publisher's full textScopus

Authority records

Larché, Nicolas

Search in DiVA

By author/editor
Larché, Nicolas
By organisation
Corrosion
In the same journal
Journal of Environmental Management
Metallurgy and Metallic Materials

Search outside of DiVA

GoogleGoogle Scholar

doi
urn-nbn

Altmetric score

doi
urn-nbn
Total: 38 hits
CiteExportLink to record
Permanent link

Direct link
Cite
Citation style
  • apa
  • ieee
  • modern-language-association-8th-edition
  • vancouver
  • Other style
More styles
Language
  • de-DE
  • en-GB
  • en-US
  • fi-FI
  • nn-NO
  • nn-NB
  • sv-SE
  • Other locale
More languages
Output format
  • html
  • text
  • asciidoc
  • rtf