Lined Pipe in Memphis, TN

Memphis is the second-largest port on the shallow-draft Mississippi, and the fifteen river miles under its jurisdiction hold a refinery, a sodium hypochlorite and caustic plant, eighteen liquid bulk terminals and the chemical, orthopedic implant and water plants that grew up around them. Marspec Technical Products fabricates PTFE-, PVDF- and polypropylene-lined pipe spools and supplies lined fittings and valves and accessories for that work, with spools shipping from Fairhope, Alabama. Call (251) 625-4949 or contact us online.

We have been in plastic-lined piping for more than half a century. This page covers the Memphis metro on both banks and across both state lines: Shelby County, DeSoto County in Mississippi and Crittenden County in Arkansas.

Fifteen river miles of terminals

The port runs from mile 725 to mile 740 on the Mississippi, with 68 waterfront facilities, 37 of them terminals, and three slack-water harbors. Presidents Island, dammed to the shore and dredged into an industrial harbor after 1946, holds about 95 percent of the port's industries. The refinery on McKellar Lake runs 180,000 barrels a day of sweet crude, with a fluid catalytic cracker and a 12,000-barrel alkylation unit that uses hydrofluoric acid, and every turnaround there replaces acid-side spools, caustic wash lines and sour-water piping. A 26-acre river-served plant on Channel Avenue makes sodium hypochlorite and caustic soda with 1.7 million gallons of lined, insulated caustic storage and three rail spurs; hypochlorite is the single best argument for PTFE-lined pipe, because iron, nickel and copper from a steel wall decompose it in the line. The petroleum, fertilizer and chemical terminals around the island, the TVA combined-cycle plant beside them and the Pidgeon Industrial Park to the south round out the district.

Chemical plants north and south of town

North of the city at Woodstock, sodium cyanide is made on a multi-tenant chemical site along the Loosahatchie, which means hydrogen cyanide, caustic absorption and cyanide-bearing effluent treated before it reaches the sewer. On the south side, the largest methyl methacrylate site in the world runs the acetone cyanohydrin route, with hydrogen cyanide, sulfuric acid, spent acid regeneration and methanol esterification, and the same site also blends lithium-ion battery electrolyte, a solvent system that cannot tolerate moisture or metal ions. A specialty chemical company founded in Memphis in 1945 makes microbicides and process chemicals for paper mills and water treatment here. Hot sulfuric acid, HCN, caustic and hypochlorite cover most of what PTFE liners were invented for. The electrolyte solvents 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.

Across the state lines

West Memphis and Marion in Crittenden County hold the Arkansas-side grain elevators, a general-purpose river terminal and the automotive and metal plants along the I-40 and I-55 interchange. Olive Branch, Southaven and Hernando in DeSoto County have filled with metal fabrication, coatings and food plants that run phosphating, pickling, clean-in-place and boiler water chemistry of their own. We treat all of it as Memphis.

Implants, pharmaceuticals and the aquifer

More than 50 life sciences companies work in Memphis, and the orthopedic and spinal implant plants are the heart of it. Implant finishing is wet chemistry: nitric or citric acid passivation of stainless and cobalt-chrome, electropolishing, titanium anodizing and etching in hydrofluoric and nitric acid, solvent and alkaline cleaning, and deionized water loops, where a PTFE liner adds no iron to the water. Those lines are small, 1/2" through 2", and they belong in PTFE-lined pipe with lined diaphragm valves, with PVDF an option only on the cooler, dilute acid and deionized water lines. HF permeates the PTFE face of the diaphragm, so on those lines we supply the PTFE/FPM diaphragm, whose FPM backing resists it, rather than the standard PTFE/EPDM. The city's drinking water comes from 175 wells into ten pumping stations, where it is aerated and filtered for iron, disinfected with sodium hypochlorite and finished with fluoride and phosphate. The two wastewater plants, Maxson on the south side and Stiles on the north, treat more than 60 billion gallons a year, and their hypochlorite, bisulfite and polymer feeds are lined-pipe service.

What we ship to Memphis

Custom lined pipe spools and fittings, 1/2" through 12", PTFE, PVDF or polypropylene lined, in carbon steel or 304/316 stainless housings, in lengths up to 20 ft, fabricated to your drawings and matched to the flanged system already in place. Our lined valves cover PFA-lined ball, plug and diaphragm patterns, a PTFE-lined butterfly valve, and lined check and sampling valves, and our piping accessories include lined strainers, expansion joints, spacers, spectacle blinds, sight glasses and solid PTFE pipe. Memphis winters are cold enough to crystallize 50 percent caustic and freeze 98 percent sulfuric acid on an outdoor rack, so we supply clamp-on steam heaters, electric tracing and heat-transfer compound for those lines, and for hypochlorite the opposite problem: insulation and shading to keep it cool and in spec. For jacketed or traced service, we recommend specifying PTFE.

Standards, and where we ship

Our lined pipe and fittings comply with ASTM F1545. Fittings conform dimensionally to ANSI B16.5 and are welded to ASME B31.3 by welders certified to ASME Section IX, and each lined pipe spool and fitting is spark tested at a minimum of 10,000 volts before it leaves Fairhope. Liner temperature limits, liner thicknesses, flange dimensions and torque tables are on our technical details page. We ship to Memphis, Presidents Island, Millington, Woodstock, Bartlett, Collierville, Germantown, Olive Branch, Southaven, Hernando, West Memphis and Marion. Call (251) 625-4949 or contact us online with a spool list or the valve you cannot keep in service.

FAQ: Lined Pipe in Memphis, TN

Which lined pipe and valves should a Presidents Island plant use on sodium hypochlorite and 50 percent caustic?

PTFE-lined pipe for hypochlorite, which metal ions decompose and which needs a smooth bore with no crevices, with lined diaphragm valves or ball valves with a vented ball (vent facing upstream), because the gas hypochlorite gives off builds pressure in a closed ball cavity. PTFE-lined pipe takes the caustic transfer lines on the same liner specification, with tracing where they run outdoors; polypropylene is available for caustic where a specification calls for it.

Can Marspec supply spools for the HF alkylation and acid-side units at the Memphis refinery during a turnaround?

Yes. We supply PTFE-lined spools, fittings and valves to your isometrics for the wet side of the HF unit (neutralization and scrubbers), spent caustic and sour-water service, spark test every spool and fitting, and ship the spools from Fairhope, Alabama; the anhydrous HF itself runs in carbon steel and Monel. Send the line list early in turnaround planning and we will stage the package.

Do orthopedic implant plants in Memphis use lined pipe?

They do, on passivation, etching, electropolishing and rinse lines, where hydrofluoric etchants would corrode stainless and any metal pipe would seed the bath with metal ions. PTFE-lined pipe and lined diaphragm valves are the usual choice because they are clean and smooth and add no metal ions to the rinse water, with PVDF an option on the cooler, dilute lines.

We are in Olive Branch or West Memphis, not Shelby County. Do you still treat us as Memphis?

Yes. Everything on this page applies to DeSoto County and Crittenden County plants. Call (251) 625-4949 or use the contact page and we will quote the same custom spools and lined valves.