Lined Pipe in Maine

Maine's process industry starts with the pulp and paper mills on the Kennebec, Androscoggin, Presumpscot, St. Croix and St. John rivers, and a bleach plant is among the hardest services a pipe can see. The state also has two wafer fabs in South Portland, one of the largest potato processing plants on the East Coast in Aroostook County, diagnostics and biotech manufacturing around Portland, and the second-largest tonnage seaport in New England. Marspec Technical Products fabricates PTFE-, PVDF- and polypropylene-lined pipe spools and supplies the lined fittings and valves for chlorine dioxide, caustic, acid and hypochlorite service, with spools shipping to Maine from Fairhope, Alabama.

Call (251) 625-4949 or contact us online with your line sizes and media, and we will quote custom spools and the lined valves to go with them.

Pulp and paper: Maine's biggest lined pipe market

The Somerset mill in Skowhegan runs three paper machines and a kraft pulp line, producing on the order of a million metric tons of paper and more than half a million tons of pulp a year, and recently rebuilt a machine to make bleached paperboard. The mill at Rumford on the Androscoggin, the Washington County pulp mill in Baileyville, the Westbrook mill outside Portland and the Madawaska mill on the St. John round out the industry, with tissue, packaging and specialty producers in between. The piping that fails first in these mills is in the bleach plant and chemical preparation areas: chlorine dioxide solution and the generator feeds of sodium chlorate, sulfuric acid and methanol; sodium hydroxide for extraction and oxygen delignification; hydrogen peroxide; sodium hypochlorite; sulfur dioxide and bisulfite for antichlor; and spent acid from the recovery side. Chlorine dioxide at bleach plant strength attacks stainless and most alloys, so PTFE- and PVDF-lined pipe, lined plug and butterfly valves and lined expansion joints are a standard answer, and PTFE-lined pipe takes the caustic, peroxide and effluent treatment lines as well, with polypropylene available for the caustic and effluent lines where a specification calls for it. Spools built to your bleach tower and washer layouts, in lengths to 20 ft, let a mill replace a leaking run during an outage instead of patching it.

Semiconductors, food, biotech and the coast

South Portland wafer fabs

Two wafer fabs in South Portland, one dating to the early 1960s, run 8-inch and smaller wafers for automotive, industrial and analog devices. Their wet benches use hydrofluoric, sulfuric, nitric and phosphoric acid, peroxide and ammonium hydroxide, and their acid waste and fluoride treatment systems use caustic, lime and calcium chloride. PTFE for hydrofluoric acid, in heavy-wall liners with vented housings because HF permeates PTFE, and for mixed waste and neutralized effluent, PVDF for the dilute acids within its rating (hot concentrated sulfuric and phosphoric stay in PTFE), and polypropylene for the effluent where a specification calls for it.

Food processing from Aroostook to the waterfront

The potato processing plant in Easton is one of the largest on the East Coast, a second large plant opened in Washburn in 2020, and the wild blueberry processors of Washington County, the lobster and seafood plants from Portland to Down East, and the breweries and dairies of southern Maine all run clean-in-place on caustic and nitric or phosphoric acid with chlorinated sanitizers, plus peeling caustic and brine in the potato plants. The chemical supply, dilution and return side of those systems is lined pipe territory.

Ports, power and water

Portland is one of the largest oil ports on the East Coast and, with Searsport, moves on the order of 125 million barrels of petroleum products a year; Searsport also handles dry bulk and Eastport deep-draft cargo. Fuel additive, tank-water and brine lines at the terminals, demineralizer regeneration acid and caustic at the oil-fired and biomass plants, and sodium hypochlorite and bisulfite at the East End plant in Portland, the largest wastewater facility in Maine at about 20 million gallons a day, are everyday applications for lined pipe and lined ball valves. Diagnostics and biotech manufacturing in Westbrook and Scarborough adds deionized water, buffer and solvent service needing metal-free piping.

Lined products for Maine mills and plants

Custom spools 1/2" through 12", PTFE, PVDF or polypropylene lined, in carbon steel or 304/316 stainless housings, to 20 ft, built to your drawings. Our lined pipe and fittings, elbows, tees, reducers, laterals and flanges, conform dimensionally to ANSI B16.5.

Lined valves: ball, plug, butterfly, diaphragm, check and sampling, with PTFE or PFA wetted parts. Piping accessories: lined strainers, expansion joints for the thermal movement of bleach plant piping, spacers, spectacle blinds, sight glasses and solid PTFE pipe.

Temperature maintenance: clamp-on steam heaters, electric tracing and heat-transfer compound. Mills have steam; outdoor chemical unloading lines at treatment plants and Aroostook County food plants usually do not, and 50 percent caustic crystallizes in the mid-50s F. We size tracing to the liner's rating.

Standards and testing

Our lined pipe and fittings comply with ASTM F1545. Lined fittings are welded to ASME B31.3 by welders certified to ASME Section IX, and every lined pipe spool and fitting receives a minimum 10,000-volt spark test before it ships. We have fabricated plastic-lined piping for more than half a century; ratings, dimensions and liner limits are on our Technical Details page.

From Kittery to Madawaska

We ship spools nationwide from Fairhope, Alabama, to Portland, South Portland, Westbrook and Scarborough; Lewiston and Auburn; Augusta, Waterville and Skowhegan in the Kennebec Valley; Rumford and the Androscoggin Valley; Bangor, Old Town and Bucksport; Searsport and Belfast; Baileyville and Calais; Presque Isle, Caribou, Easton and Madawaska in Aroostook County; and Bath, Brunswick, Biddeford, Sanford and Kittery to the south. Call (251) 625-4949 or contact us online and tell us which mill or plant the line is for.

FAQ: Lined Pipe in Maine

What lined pipe do you recommend for chlorine dioxide service in a Maine bleach plant?

PTFE- or PVDF-lined pipe with lined plug or butterfly valves. Chlorine dioxide solution attacks stainless, and both liners resist it at bleach plant concentrations and temperatures. Tell us the concentration, temperature and whether the line sees vacuum, and we will confirm the liner.

Can you fabricate spools to fit an existing bleach tower or washer layout at a mill like Somerset or Rumford?

Yes. Send isometrics or field dimensions and we will fabricate custom lined spools to 20 ft with ANSI B16.5 flanges, so they bolt to the existing equipment during the outage.

Do you supply lined pipe for the acid waste systems at the South Portland fabs?

Yes. PTFE for hydrofluoric acid (heavy-wall liners in vented housings), mixed acid waste, neutralized effluent and hot concentrated sulfuric, PVDF for dilute sulfuric and nitric, and polypropylene for the effluent where a specification calls for it, with lined plug or diaphragm valves to match; lime slurry usually runs in carbon steel, HDPE or rubber-lined pipe.

How do you handle caustic and hypochlorite lines through an Aroostook County winter?

With clamp-on steam heaters or electric tracing and heat-transfer compound sized to the liner, so 50 percent caustic stays above its crystallization point and hypochlorite keeps flowing at a potato plant or treatment plant in January.