Lined Pipe in Augusta, GA

The Central Savannah River Area handles nitric acid on a scale few regions match. On the Georgia bank, Augusta's chemical row along Columbia Nitrogen Road makes about 765,000 tons a year of ammonia and more than 700,000 tons of nitric acid. On the South Carolina bank, the Savannah River Site holds about 34.5 million gallons of radioactive liquid waste in 43 underground tanks. Add Plant Vogtle, a bleached paperboard mill, a sulfone polymer plant and a kaolin belt that bleaches clay in sulfuric acid, and you have a region that specifies lined pipe by habit. Marspec Technical Products fabricates it in Fairhope, Alabama, and ships it nationwide. Call (251) 625-4949.

Send an isometric, a valve list or a photo of the spool that failed and we will quote it, or contact us online.

Both banks of the river

Columbia Nitrogen Road

The nitrogen complex has made ammonia since 1964 and was expanded to 2,600 short tons a day in a 2016 turnaround. Downstream of ammonia, the nitric acid plant, the ammonium nitrate neutralizers and the urea and UAN units move 50 to 60 percent nitric acid, hot ammonium nitrate solution and UAN. PTFE-lined pipe and PFA-lined valves carry nitric acid, though at ambient temperature 304L stainless handles commercial-strength acid too, because nitric acid keeps it passive. A sulfone polymer plant of about 300 people makes the sulfonated monomers behind polysulfone and polyphenylsulfone, chemistry that runs on oleum and sulfuric acid, chlorinated aromatics and caustic. A bleach plant on the river, left behind when the mercury-cell chlor-alkali plant stopped in 2012, ships sodium hypochlorite by rail and truck. The bleached paperboard mill, sold for about 700 million dollars in 2024, runs chlorine dioxide, caustic and peroxide in its bleach plant. A fluorochemicals plant in North Augusta and the Highland Avenue water plant, which takes the Savannah River through the Augusta Canal at up to 60 million gallons a day, round out the list.

The Savannah River Site

SRS covers 310 square miles below Aiken, and its liquid waste program is a remote-controlled chemical plant. Tank waste is strongly caustic and heavy in nitrate, and is split into salt and sludge. The Salt Waste Processing Facility, in hot operation since 2021 and sized for up to nine million gallons a year, strips cesium by caustic-side solvent extraction with a dilute acid strip; the Defense Waste Processing Facility adjusts sludge with nitric and glycolic acid before vitrifying it; and the saltstone plant grouts the decontaminated salt solution. H Canyon, the only production-scale shielded chemical separations facility in the country, dissolves fuel and legacy material in nitric acid, and tank cleaning uses oxalic acid. Nitric, oxalic and glycolic acid, 50 percent caustic and nitrate brines are the fluids PTFE-lined pipe and PFA-lined valves were developed for.

Vogtle, Aiken County and the kaolin belt

Plant Vogtle, on the Savannah River in Burke County, became the largest nuclear plant in the United States when Units 3 and 4 entered service in July 2023 and April 2024, giving it four reactors and 4,536 megawatts. Boric acid, the acid and caustic that regenerate condensate polishers, and hypochlorite for cooling water are its routine chemistry. In Aiken County, two tire plants, a specialty glass fiber plant and a diaper and tissue plant at Beech Island with more than 2,000 employees run the utility chemistry every large plant does. The kaolin belt along the fall line ships about eight million metric tons of clay a year, about 70 percent of it to paper; mines in Warren County near Thomson feed the plant at Wrens, and Sandersville calls itself the kaolin capital of the world. Processing pumps clay slurry up to 16 miles, then bleaches it by acidifying with sulfuric acid to about pH 3 and adding sodium hydrosulfite to dissolve the iron. Acidified slurry is abrasive and corrosive; in the bleach circuits, PVDF-lined spools kept within velocity limits, with lined diaphragm and plug valves, are an alternative to rubber-lined steel.

The Marspec line for the CSRA

Custom spools 1/2" through 12" and up to 20 ft, PTFE, PVDF or polypropylene lined, in carbon steel or 304/316 stainless housings, with matching fittings, are on our lined pipe and fittings page. Lined ball, plug, butterfly, diaphragm, check and sampling valves are on our lined valves page, and strainers, expansion joints, spacers, blinds and sight glasses are under piping accessories. For nitric acid, oxalic acid, sulfonation chemistry, caustic, coagulants and commercial hypochlorite we recommend PTFE-lined pipe and PFA-lined valves; for kaolin bleach and peroxide, PVDF, which also suits dilute or lower-pH hypochlorite; polypropylene-lined spools are available for caustic and coagulant lines where a specification calls for them. Ammonium nitrate and UAN solutions and 50 percent caustic crystallize when they cool, so for outdoor racks we supply clamp-on steam heaters, electric tracing and heat-transfer compound from our temperature maintenance line.

Specifications, once

Our lined pipe and fittings comply with ASTM F1545. Fittings conform dimensionally to ANSI B16.5 and are welded to ASME B31.3 by welders certified to ASME Section IX, and every lined pipe spool and fitting is spark tested at a minimum of 10,000 volts. Liner ratings are on the technical details page, and more than half a century in plastic-lined piping is behind every spool.

Serving Augusta, Aiken and the river

Augusta, North Augusta, Aiken, Graniteville, Beech Island, Evans, Grovetown, Thomson, Waynesboro, Wrens and Sandersville all get custom spools from Fairhope, Alabama, built to field dimensions for outages. Call (251) 625-4949 or contact us online with the fluid and the size.

FAQ: Lined Pipe in Augusta, GA

Is PTFE-lined pipe suitable for the nitric acid made on Columbia Nitrogen Road?

Yes. PTFE and PFA are unaffected by nitric acid at the 50 to 60 percent strength a fertilizer plant makes and loads; 304L stainless also handles that acid at ambient temperature, because nitric acid keeps it passive. Lined plug and sampling valves complete the loading rack.

What lined products fit the acid and caustic chemistry at the Savannah River Site?

PTFE-lined spools and PFA-lined valves for nitric, oxalic and glycolic acid and for the strongly caustic nitrate wastes, supplied in carbon steel or stainless housings to the flange standard the design calls for. We quote to drawings and specifications rather than guessing at service.

Which liner do you recommend for kaolin bleaching with sulfuric acid and sodium hydrosulfite?

PVDF for the acidified slurry and hydrosulfite feed, PTFE for the dilute acid and dispersant lines, both in spools with lined diaphragm or plug valves that pass abrasive clay without a body cavity to pack.

Can you match an existing flanged lined system at a CSRA plant during a turnaround?

Yes. Our fittings conform dimensionally to ANSI B16.5 and we build spools to your face-to-face dimensions and flange drilling, so replacements drop into the run that is already there. Send the isometric or a tagged photo and we will quote it.