Lined Pipe in Beaumont and Port Arthur, TX

Two of the four largest refineries in the United States sit within twenty miles of each other on the Sabine-Neches Waterway, and the Golden Triangle adds an oxides complex at Port Neches, synthetic rubber and methanol at Beaumont, and the busiest bulk-liquid waterway in the country tying it all together. Marspec Technical Products fabricates PTFE-, PVDF- and polypropylene-lined pipe spools and supplies the lined fittings and valves for those plants, with PTFE on the alkylation acid, spent caustic, sulfonation oleum and amine. Call (251) 625-4949 and tell us what the line carries.

Our shop is in Fairhope, Alabama, a Gulf Coast neighbor with more than half a century of plastic-lined piping behind it. Email drawings or contact us online for a quote.

Three cities, one process corridor

The refineries

The biggest of Port Arthur's three refineries is the largest in the country at about 656,000 barrels a day by federal count, and the Beaumont refinery upriver ranks fourth at about 612,000. A second Port Arthur refinery runs about 385,000 barrels a day and a third about 238,000, the latter integrated with a steam cracker that turns ethane, propane, butane and naphtha into ethylene, propylene and butadiene, and with a one-million-ton ethane cracker feeding polyethylene in Pasadena. Between them, these four plants generate the full menu of refinery corrosion services: sulfuric acid to and spent acid from the alkylation units, caustic treating and spent caustic, sour water, lean and rich amine, acid and hypochlorite dosing at the cooling towers, and wastewater neutralization. PTFE-lined spools and PFA-lined plug and ball valves, with lined diaphragm valves or vented-ball valves (vent facing upstream) on the hypochlorite, serve the lines in those units where carbon steel falls short.

Port Neches and Beaumont

The 3,000-acre oxides site at Port Neches is one of the largest ethylene oxide producers on the Gulf Coast, with ethylene glycol, propylene oxide, propylene glycol, ethanolamines, surfactants and MTBE downstream. Surfactant sulfation runs on sulfur trioxide and oleum followed by caustic neutralization, glycol and amine purification pulls vacuum, and MTBE and oxide units handle acid catalysts and caustic washes, all of which is lined-pipe service. Port Neches also has an emulsion rubber plant that coagulates its polymer with brine and acid. Beaumont adds a synthetic rubber plant south of town that makes solution rubber, recovered from its solvent by steam stripping, and a methanol plant of about 1.75 million tons a year beside an older methanol and ammonia complex, where amine and caustic carbon dioxide removal and demineralized water systems are the corrosion points.

Terminals and LNG on the Sabine-Neches Waterway

The waterway is the third busiest in the United States by tonnage and the top bulk-liquid waterway. The Nederland terminal between Beaumont and Port Arthur holds about 33 million barrels in 84 tanks and exports ethane, propane and other liquids, and the Port of Beaumont sits at the head of navigation. At the mouth stands the Golden Pass LNG export terminal at Sabine Pass. Terminals and liquefaction trains do not use lined pipe in the cryogenic or crude service itself, but their amine treating, caustic, chemical injection, demineralized water and wastewater systems do, and those are the spools we build and the lined diaphragm valves we supply.

Lined piping for Golden Triangle services

We fabricate custom lined pipe spools and supply lined fittings from 1/2" through 12" in PTFE, PVDF or polypropylene, inside carbon steel or 304 and 316 stainless housings, to your isometrics and up to 20 ft per piece. Matching that to the services above:

• Alkylation acid, spent acid and sulfation oleum: PTFE-lined spools with PFA-lined plug valves and lined sight glasses; PVDF only on cooler, dilute acid streams
• Spent caustic, amine and caustic wash: PTFE-lined spools, lined ball valves and lined strainers
• Vacuum stripping and purification: PTFE-lined spools with PTFE spacers and spectacle blinds; liner temperature limits, liner thicknesses, flange dimensions and torque tables are on our technical details page
• Hot caustic and viscous surfactant lines: clamp-on steam heaters, electric tracing and heat-transfer compound on a PTFE-lined spool
• Sampling, check and butterfly valves, expansion joints and solid PTFE pipe for the rest of the system

Specifications we build to

Our lined pipe and fittings comply with ASTM F1545, and the fittings conform dimensionally to ANSI B16.5 and are welded to ASME B31.3 by welders certified to ASME Section IX. Every lined pipe spool and fitting passes a minimum 10,000-volt spark test before it ships. Liner temperature limits, liner thicknesses, flange dimensions and torque tables are on our technical details page.

Serving Beaumont, Port Arthur, Orange and the Neches towns

We supply plants in Beaumont, Port Arthur, Port Neches, Nederland, Groves, Orange, Vidor, Bridge City, Sabine Pass and Mauriceville, with custom spools fabricated in our own shop and shipped from Fairhope, Alabama. Call (251) 625-4949 or contact us online for a quote on a single replacement spool or a full turnaround package.

FAQ: Lined Pipe in Beaumont and Port Arthur, TX

Can you build spools for a Port Arthur or Beaumont refinery turnaround to our isometrics and flange standards?

Yes. We fabricate to your isometrics with ANSI B16.5 flange dimensions, spark test each spool and ship the package from Fairhope ahead of the outage, and we turn quick replacements for spools discovered corroded once the unit is open.

Which liner handles the oleum and sulfur trioxide sulfation lines at the Port Neches oxides complex?

PTFE is the usual choice for oleum and concentrated sulfuric acid at sulfation temperatures, with PVDF an option only on cooler, dilute acid and PTFE again for the caustic neutralization downstream, since caustic attacks PVDF at any strength. We confirm concentration and temperature before quoting.

Will your lined pipe mate with the flanged lined systems already installed along the Sabine-Neches Waterway?

It will. Lined pipe and fittings built to ASTM F1545 with B16.5 flange dimensions interchange at the flange, so our spools and lined valves bolt into existing lined headers without adapters.

Do you supply the amine and chemical-feed piping at Golden Pass or the Nederland terminal?

We supply lined spools, fittings and lined diaphragm valves for amine, caustic, demineralized water and chemical injection service at terminals and liquefaction plants, built to the project isometrics.