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 wafer fab manufacturing in South Portland, one of the largest potato processing plants on the East Coast in Aroostook County, diagnostics and biotech manufacturing around Portland, and petroleum and cargo terminals at Portland and Searsport. 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, one of them making bleached paperboard, and a kraft pulp line. 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 chipmaking
Wafer fab manufacturing in South Portland, which dates to the early 1960s, runs 8-inch and smaller wafers for automotive, industrial and analog devices. The wet benches use hydrofluoric, sulfuric, nitric and phosphoric acid, peroxide and ammonium hydroxide, and the acid waste and fluoride treatment systems use caustic, lime and calcium chloride. PTFE for hydrofluoric acid, 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 runs in Washburn, 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 and Searsport receive petroleum products by ship; 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, with lined diaphragm valves, or ball valves with a vented ball (vent facing upstream), on the hypochlorite. Hydrocarbon fuel additives 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. 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. For jacketed or traced service, we recommend specifying PTFE.
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; liner temperature limits, liner thicknesses, flange dimensions and torque tables 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 a South Portland wafer fab?
Yes. PTFE for hydrofluoric acid, 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 (the PTFE/FPM diaphragm on HF); 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 on a PTFE-lined line, sized to the liner, so 50 percent caustic stays above its crystallization point at a potato plant or treatment plant in January. Hypochlorite can freeze in deep cold; trace it only to keep it from freezing, and never overheat it, since heat speeds its decay.