Lined Pipe in Baton Rouge, LA

From the head of deepwater navigation at the Port of Greater Baton Rouge down to Donaldsonville, about 55 river miles, the Mississippi is lined with the plants that give the corridor its name: a refinery of roughly half a million barrels a day that has run since 1909, the Geismar complex with its isocyanate, ethylene oxide, methanol and chlor-alkali units, the 1,500-acre chlorine and ethylene site at Plaquemine next to a large PVC plant, and the largest nitrogen fertilizer complex in the country. Marspec Technical Products fabricates plastic-lined pipe spools and supplies the lined fittings and valves for those processes, with spools shipping from Fairhope, Alabama, a Gulf Coast neighbor. Call (251) 625-4949.

We have lined steel pipe with PTFE, PVDF and polypropylene for more than half a century. Send a spool drawing, a valve schedule or a turnaround scope through our contact page.

Baton Rouge and Port Allen

The refinery on Scenic Highway, with a chemical plant, a polyolefins plant and a plastics plant beside it, is the largest single industrial site in the corridor and makes isopropyl alcohol, butyl rubber and adhesive resins as well as fuels. Across the river at Port Allen a lubricants plant blends about 125 million gallons a year of finished lubes and a second refinery runs around 80,000 barrels a day. Lined pipe shows up in alkylation acid and spent acid, caustic treating, sour water, amine and the sulfur plant, in the isopropanol unit's sulfuric acid hydration loop, and in the racks that unload 93 percent sulfuric acid, 50 percent caustic and hypochlorite. North Baton Rouge also has a PVC and chlor-alkali plant, a fluorochemical plant that makes foam blowing agents on hydrogen fluoride chemistry, and the Port Hudson tissue and towel mill above Zachary.

Geismar and St. Gabriel

Geismar is the densest chemical cluster in Ascension Parish. Three producers make MDI and the aniline that feeds it, which puts phosgene, hydrochloric acid, nitrobenzene and caustic on the same site. Ethylene oxide and alpha olefin units, an ethylene cracker, a methanol plant, an ammonia plant, a renewable diesel unit, hydrogen and syngas plants and a chlor-alkali and PVC complex fill out the fence lines. The fluorochemical plant that makes the automotive refrigerant HFO-1234yf runs on anhydrous HF. Upriver of Geismar at St. Gabriel, crop-protection chemistry handles chlorinated intermediates and strong acids. In all of that, PTFE-lined pipe and PFA-lined valves carry the wet chlorine, HCl, aqueous HF (the anhydrous HF itself runs in carbon steel) and hypochlorite (lined diaphragm valves or ball valves with a vented ball, vent facing upstream, on the hypochlorite), and PTFE covers the brine, caustic, sulfuric acid and the ethylene oxide plant's caustic scrubber loops as well; PVDF is available for the brine and for cooler, dilute sulfuric acid, and polypropylene for dechlorinated brine and caustic, where a specification calls for them.

Plaquemine and Donaldsonville

The Plaquemine complex draws brine from Grand Bayou to 15 production units, including the chlorine, caustic and ethylene dichloride units. Beside it sits a vinyl complex making chlor-alkali, VCM and PVC; Shintech's three U.S. plants, Plaquemine among them, make about 3.6 million tons of PVC a year. Chlor-alkali, EDC and VCM service is lined pipe from end to end: cell liquor, wet chlorine vents, aqueous HCl from the absorbers and scrubbers, 32 and 50 percent caustic, hypochlorite from the vent scrubbers, and stripped wastewater. Downriver at Donaldsonville, the 1,400-acre nitrogen complex has about 4.3 million tons a year of ammonia capacity, much of it upgraded to granular urea and UAN, and feeds the Gulf Central ammonia pipeline, and the Faustina plant beside it makes ammonia. Nitric acid and ammonium nitrate solution normally run in 304L stainless, and UAN in inhibited carbon steel; lined pipe fits the hot, contaminated or mixed streams and the scrubber liquors, and among the liners, nitric acid takes PTFE, with PVDF an option on cooler, dilute streams.

What we ship into the corridor

Custom lined pipe spools and lined fittings, 1/2" through 12", straight spools to 20 ft, carbon steel or 304 and 316 stainless housings, PTFE, PVDF or polypropylene liners. We fabricate to isometrics and match the flange standard and face-to-face of the lined system already installed, so a turnaround spool bolts up to the existing rack.

Lined ball, plug, butterfly, diaphragm, check and sampling valves come from our lined valves page. Sizes vary by pattern: ball valves 1/2" through 10", plug valves 1/2" through 6", diaphragm valves 1/2" through 8", butterfly valves 1" through 42", ball check and sampling valves 1/2" through 6", and swing check valves 1-1/2" through 24". Our piping accessories include lined strainers, lined expansion joints for the thermal growth on long river-rack runs, PTFE spacers, spectacle blinds, sight glasses and solid PTFE pipe.

Even in south Louisiana, 50 percent caustic crystallizes on a January night and MDI and urea solutions set up when a line stops. We supply clamp-on steam heaters, electric tracing and heat-transfer compound through our temperature maintenance products. For jacketed or traced service, we recommend specifying PTFE.

Standards, testing and service area

Our lined pipe and fittings comply with ASTM F1545, every fitting conforms dimensionally to ANSI B16.5, lined fittings are welded per ASME B31.3 by ASME Section IX certified welders, and every lined pipe spool and fitting is spark tested at a minimum of 10,000 volts before it leaves the shop. Liner temperature limits, liner thicknesses, flange dimensions and torque tables are on the technical details page.

We serve Baton Rouge, Port Allen, Addis, Plaquemine, St. Gabriel, Geismar, Gonzales, Donaldsonville, Zachary, Baker, Walker and Denham Springs. For a quote on a spool package, a lined valve or a full unit of replacement pipe, call (251) 625-4949 or contact us online. We fabricate custom spools in our own shop and ship them nationwide from Fairhope, Alabama.

FAQ: Lined Pipe in Baton Rouge, LA

Can you fabricate turnaround spools for a Geismar or Plaquemine chlor-alkali unit to match the existing lined system?

Yes. Give us the flange standard, liner type, face-to-face dimensions and tag numbers, and we supply PTFE-lined spools and fittings that bolt in during the outage. We fabricate to ANSI B16.5 dimensions, so they mate with the lined flanges already in service.

What liner do you recommend for the acid lines at the Donaldsonville nitrogen complex?

Nitric acid and ammonium nitrate solution normally run in 304L stainless, and UAN in inhibited carbon steel. Where a stream runs hot, contaminated or mixed, lined pipe takes over, and PTFE is the liner: it handles nitric acid, sulfuric acid and the scrubber liquors on one liner. PVDF is an option on cooler, dilute acid streams (hot or concentrated acid stays in PTFE), and polypropylene is available for dilute sulfuric lines where a specification calls for it, but it is not suitable for strong nitric acid, which stays in PTFE. All three come in carbon steel housings with lined plug or diaphragm valves.

Which sizes and valve types are most common in Baton Rouge refinery and chemical service?

Most spools we build for this corridor are 1" through 8" in PTFE and PVDF, with lined plug and ball valves for isolation and lined diaphragm valves for caustic, hypochlorite and acid feed. Spools run 1/2" through 12"; valve sizes vary by pattern, as listed on our lined valves page.

How do we get a quote on a spool package during a shutdown?

Email the isometrics or a marked-up line list through our contact page or call (251) 625-4949. We quote from drawings, confirm liner selection against the fluid and temperature, and build custom spools in Fairhope, Alabama.