PROJECTS

MAIN OBJECTIVE | Strengthen research, technological development and innovation.

Development of a new line of coating mortars with high chemical resistance for construction or rehabilitation of sewers infrastructures.

SCOPE

Sanitation infrastructures are essential for the normal operation of urban areas. However, these systems suffer from early degradation due to corrosion/deterioration of the materials, as a result of the action of the transported fluids, which are responsible for the creation of a chemically very aggressive environment. This project aims to develop and validate new coating mortars with high chemical resistance, for construction or rehabilitation of sewers infrastructures. Methodologies will be developed and validated that allow to evaluate the performance of mortars for sanitation infrastructures. The development of viable products is anticipated, ensuring the durability of the constructive elements of sewers infrastructures.

MAIN OBJECTIVES

• Identify critical factors inherent to the development of pathologies in coating solutions for sanitation systems;
• Define methodologies that allow to recreate in laboratory, environmental conditions prone to the development of the same pathologies, allowing the optimization and performance evaluation studies of the new products;
• Create a new line of coating mortars with high chemical resistance, for construction and rehabilitation of sanitation systems;
• Create a new segment of coating mortars, capable of increasing the lifetime of the sanitation infrastructures, minimizing the resources needed for their maintenance and repair;
• Evaluate the performance of the new mortars with respect to the technical specifications and durability to this type of products;
• Characterize and validate the performance of the new mortars in real facilities, providing increased commercial value to the new products, which will allow the commercialization of the products into the national and international markets.

PROJECT ACTIVITIES AND EXPECTED RESULTS

• Consolidation of the art state and definition of the functional requirements - This activity aims to identify and analyse coating solutions on the market for sanitation systems; study the regulation and standardization applicable to this type of products; define the functional requirements of the new solutions.
• Development and validation of methodologies to evaluate the performance of the new solutions – The development and validation of methodologies to assess the performance of the innovative solutions will include a study of the most common anomalies found in sanitation systems; the definition of methodologies that allow to recreate in the laboratory, in an accelerated way, the same conditions observed in the real environment; validation of these methodologies using reference samples; application of the samples in real systems, relating the results with those obtained in the laboratory by accelerated test methods.
• Development and characterization of the new coating solutions – The activity of development and characterization of new coating solutions aims to found formulations for new coating systems; characterize and optimize the performance of the new formulations; characterize the mortars regarding to the technical specifications of this type of product; select the best formulations.
• Fabril approach – The fabril approach intended to analyse the manufacturing conditions of new products, namely with respect to the possibility to implement changes in the existing production line and production of new mortars under manufacture conditions.
• Validation of the new coating products performance – This activity aims to evaluate, under laboratory conditions, the chemical and mechanical resistance of new mortars produced in manufacturing conditions; validate the performance of the new products in real conditions and compare the results with the one obtained under laboratory conditions; verify compliance of the the functional requirements established in the first activity of the project.
• Promotion and dissemination of results - The activity of promotion and dissemination of results, it is intended to prepare technical sheets and application rules; develop technical and scientific contents to widely disseminate the project's results (seminars, scientific conferences, publications, website); participate in relevant technology events in the sector.

MAIN RESULTS ACHIEVED

• Mortars with superior resistance to chemical attack
  Motar4Sewage project resulted in 9 new mortar formulations that fulfil the requirements of the DIN 19573 standard in the pH 0 test, for 14 days. On the other hand, the mortar formulation selected, also showed excellent performance in the test of resistance to sulfuric acid at pH 1, for 70 days, and in the test of resistance to sulphates, fulfilling in this way all the requirements demanded by the main test reference used for the chemical resistance evaluation, obtaining in this way the classification of XWW4 (resistance to biogenic sulfuric acid).
  
• Mortars with high durability
  During the Motar4Sewage project, new formulations that present superior chemical resistance than reference samples were developed, when subjected to the same test conditions. The several reference samples studied were prepared from mortars currently available on the market.
  
• Chemical resistance test methodology
  Several experimental campaigns were carried out with the objective of improving a method of immersion in sulfuric acid that would allow, in an accelerated way, to mimic the degradation effect verified in mortars applied in real sanitation systems. The test conditions were progressively optimized to reach those defined in the DIN 19573 standard, which was used as the test reference in the evaluation of chemical resistance of the mortars, throughout the project.