Plastics Pipes in the Gas Industry

Gas distributed by the Industry was for well over a century derived from coal and throughout this period the only changes of significance to the Distribution Engineer were those effecting a reduction in condensibles and contro! of the constituents which gave rise to interna! corrosion of pipes.
During the last ten years, however, because of fundamental changes in gas production processes, the undesirable constituents have been further reduced and we now enter a phase with straight natural gas when, at pressures acceptable in town streets, the condensible hydro carbons are at an extremely low level the moisture content so low as to be an embarrassment.
The employment of plastic pipes would appear to offer some substatial advantages over the traditional materials; plastics are light in weight, resistant to soil corrosion and can be manufactured and handled in long lengths thereby reducing the amount of jointing required. Laying costs promise to be substantially lower and the cost of pipe in this material even at this stage, before the potential!
demand has been fully assessed, shows considereable savings over steel and iron.