Lined Pipe in Baltimore, MD

Baltimore's chemistry is concentrated on the south side of the Patapsco, from Curtis Bay and Hawkins Point around to Fairfield, and in the two big wastewater plants that meet Chesapeake Bay nutrient limits. Marspec Technical Products fabricates PTFE-, PVDF- and polypropylene-lined pipe spools and supplies the lined fittings and valves for the sulfuric acid, caustic, hypochlorite, ferric chloride and methanol lines in those plants, and we ship spools to Baltimore from Fairhope, Alabama. Call (251) 625-4949 with a spool list or a single tag number.

We have lined steel pipe for more than half a century. Contact us online with what the line carries, how hot and how concentrated, and we will name the liner and quote it.

Around the Patapsco

Curtis Bay, Hawkins Point and Fairfield

The Curtis Bay works on Chemical Road makes fluid catalytic cracking catalysts, hydroprocessing catalysts, polyolefin catalysts and silicas, and catalyst manufacturing runs on sulfuric acid, caustic, sodium silicate and aluminum salts by the tank car. A specialty chemical plant on Fairfield Road moves chlorosulfonic acid between tankers and trailers, a petroleum terminal holds more than half a million barrels of gasoline and diesel, and the coal pier exports enough to rank the port second in the country. Hawkins Point holds a wallboard plant, an industrial gas plant and the 318-acre site of a former titanium dioxide plant. The port also receives imported UAN fertilizer solution; inhibited carbon steel carries it in normal service, and lined spools take the hot, contaminated or mixed streams.

Back River, Patapsco and the Bay

The Back River plant on its 466-acre site is the largest treatment plant in Maryland, designed for 180 million gallons a day with enhanced nutrient removal. The Patapsco plant at Wagner's Point was rebuilt around one of the largest fixed-film denitrification systems in the world, its denitrification filters fed by a methanol facility, with capacity above 80 million gallons a day. Nutrient removal at that scale means methanol for carbon, ferric chloride or alum for phosphorus, caustic for alkalinity and sodium hypochlorite with bisulfite for disinfection, and every one of those feed lines belongs in PTFE-lined pipe, with PVDF or polypropylene available where a specification calls for them, except that PVDF is not for the caustic or bulk-strength hypochlorite and polypropylene is not for the hypochlorite.

I-95 and I-83: vials, vectors and biologics

Baltimore's pharmaceutical plants sit along the interstates: a 360,000-square-foot campus at Hunt Valley on I-83 making oral solids, soft gels and vial and lyophilized injectables, an 87,000-square-foot sterile fill-finish plant with four lines near Camden Yards, a biologics and vaccine drug-substance plant at Bayview running 20,000- to 50,000-liter scale, and a viral vector campus at Harmans by the airport. Their water for injection runs in orbital-welded, electropolished 316L sanitary systems, but the buffers, clean-in-place acid and caustic and solvents around it run well in PTFE-lined spools, which shed no iron, chromium or nickel. Many of those solvents can build a static charge that pinholes a plain lining or ignites vapor, so bond and ground the spools and use anti-static PFA-AS valves; tell us if your specification calls for an anti-static liner.

Lined piping for Baltimore plants

We fabricate custom lined pipe spools and supply lined fittings from 1/2" through 12" in PTFE, PVDF or polypropylene, in carbon steel or 304 or 316 stainless housings, to your isometric and up to 20 ft per straight spool, with matching lined fittings. Lined valves come in ball, plug, butterfly, diaphragm, check and sampling patterns, flanged to the spools.

Accessories include lined strainers and expansion joints, PTFE spacers and spectacle blinds, sight glasses and solid PTFE pipe. Outdoor caustic, ferric and methanol feed lines at a wastewater plant or a Curtis Bay tank farm get clamp-on steam heaters or electric tracing from our temperature maintenance line, since 50 percent caustic crystallizes in the mid 50s F and a Chesapeake January goes well below that. For jacketed or traced service, we recommend specifying PTFE. Vessel accessories and custom PTFE machining are under other products.

The standards, once

• Our lined pipe and fittings comply with ASTM F1545
• Fittings conform dimensionally to ANSI B16.5
• Lined fittings are welded to ASME B31.3 by welders certified to ASME Section IX
• Every lined pipe spool and fitting spark tested at a minimum of 10,000 volts before shipment
• Liner temperature limits, liner thicknesses, flange dimensions and torque tables on our technical details page

Serving Baltimore and the harbor

We ship lined piping to Baltimore, Curtis Bay, Fairfield, Hawkins Point, Dundalk, Sparrows Point, Glen Burnie, Pasadena, Hunt Valley, Cockeysville and Columbia. Call (251) 625-4949 or contact us online for a replacement spool, a valve package or an outage order.

FAQ: Lined Pipe in Baltimore, MD

Which liner do you recommend for methanol, ferric chloride and hypochlorite feed at the Back River or Patapsco plants?

PTFE covers ferric chloride, hypochlorite, caustic and methanol on one liner specification, PVDF also suits the methanol line and dilute or on-site hypochlorite at pH 12 or below (bulk 12.5 percent bleach carries free caustic that attacks PVDF over time, so it stays in PTFE), and polypropylene is available for ferric chloride and caustic at feed temperatures where a specification calls for it. All three bolt to existing ANSI B16.5 flanges, and lined diaphragm valves give the throttling those feed systems need.

Can lined pipe replace alloy on the acid and caustic transfer lines at a Curtis Bay catalyst plant?

In most sulfuric acid, caustic, sodium silicate and aluminum salt services, yes. A PTFE-lined carbon steel spool carries full flange pressure ratings, resists the whole chemistry list and costs a fraction of a nickel-alloy spool.

Are lined spools and valves acceptable in a Hunt Valley or Harmans biomanufacturing plant?

For utility and clean-in-place distribution they are. PTFE-lined spools and PFA-lined diaphragm valves offer a chemically resistant, smooth, drainable bore with no metal ion pickup, and every spool is spark tested before it ships from Fairhope, Alabama.