Corrosion of sewage pipes inevitably means unwanted aromas and costs the Australian water industry around $100 million a year. A new chemical to be applied to pipes once a week, will kill off the organisms that result in corrosion and smell, before being killed off itself by the microbial community that lives within the sewage systems.
The new environmentally-friendly free nitrous acid (FNA) has been developed to replace the expensive chemicals currently used to maintain wastewater infrastructures.
One of the challenges was developing a chemical that wouldn’t create further problems for the sewage treatment process. In doing so, the new chemical is expected to increase the longevity of the pipes to up to 100 years.
Read more at The University of Queensland