Lined Pipe in Baton Rouge, LA

From the head of deepwater navigation at the Port of Greater Baton Rouge down to Donaldsonville, about forty 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 pulp and paper mill at Port Hudson above Zachary, whose bleach plant moves chlorine dioxide, caustic extraction liquor and peroxide.

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. South 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 and hypochlorite, with vented housings on the chlorine, HCl and HF lines, because those small molecules permeate the liner, and heavy-wall liners on HF (the anhydrous HF itself runs in carbon steel), 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 sulfuric acid, and polypropylene for the brine and caustic, where a specification calls for them.

Plaquemine and Donaldsonville

The Plaquemine complex draws brine from Grand Bayou to twelve production units, including the chlorine, caustic and ethylene dichloride units, and employs more than 3,000 people and contractors. Beside it, the vinyl complex that started chlor-alkali and VCM production in 2008 now makes 3.64 million tons of PVC a year and is adding a second ethylene unit and a fourth chlor-alkali and VCM unit by 2030, which will bring another 310,000 tons of caustic soda. Chlor-alkali, EDC and VCM service is lined pipe from end to end: cell liquor, wet chlorine vents, HCl from oxychlorination, 32 and 50 percent caustic, hypochlorite from the vent scrubbers, and stripped wastewater. Downriver at Donaldsonville, the 1,400-acre nitrogen complex makes ammonia, granular urea and UAN at about five million tons a year and feeds the Gulf Central ammonia pipeline, while the phosphate plant beside it, which makes sulfuric and phosphoric acid for ammonium phosphate fertilizer, idled its phosphate operations in August 2026. Wet-process phosphoric acid with its fluoride, the sulfuric plant's weak acid and scrubber streams, and the nitric acid and ammonium nitrate solution at the UAN plant all go in PTFE; PVDF- and polypropylene-lined spools are available for the phosphoric and weak acid lines where a specification calls for them.

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 in matching sizes come from our lined valves page. 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.

Standards, testing and service area

Our lined pipe and fittings comply with ASTM F1545, every fitting conforms dimensionally to ANSI B16.5, housings 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 ratings for pressure, full vacuum and temperature 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 phosphoric and sulfuric acid at the Donaldsonville fertilizer plants?

PTFE: it handles wet-process phosphoric acid, dilute and concentrated sulfuric, nitric acid and the hot fluoride-bearing streams on one liner. PVDF is an option for sulfuric acid to about 93 percent at ambient temperature (hot concentrated acid stays in PTFE), and polypropylene is available for the ambient phosphoric and dilute sulfuric lines where a specification calls for it. 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. We supply 1/2" through 12", and sampling and check valves lined with PFA or PTFE.

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.