Lined Pipe in Michigan

Michigan's process industry was built on brine. Salt wells under Midland, Manistee, Ludington, St. Clair and the Downriver suburbs of Detroit have fed chlorine, bromine, magnesium and calcium chloride production for well over a century, and that same chemistry now feeds silicones, trichlorosilane and some of the purest polysilicon made anywhere. Add the state's only refinery, auto paint and pickling lines, battery plants, sugar beet factories and one of the largest wastewater plants in North America, and Michigan moves a great deal of hydrochloric acid, caustic, hypochlorite and brine through pipe every day.

Marspec Technical Products fabricates the piping for that work. We have more than half a century in the plastic-lined piping industry, and we fabricate PTFE-, PVDF- and polypropylene-lined steel pipe spools and supply lined fittings from 1/2" through 12" in Fairhope, Alabama, supply lined valves and accessories, and ship to Michigan plants nationwide. Call (251) 625-4949 or contact us online with a line list and we will quote it.

Brine, chlorine and silicon in the Saginaw Valley

Michigan has been the leading salt-producing state for most of the time since 1876, and Midland sits on the Marshall brines that started it all. The chemical complex there still draws on that resource, anchoring silicone, chlorosilane and specialty chemical production that extends to the polysilicon plant west of Saginaw. Trichlorosilane is made in Midland from metallurgical silicon and hydrogen chloride, and the polysilicon it becomes goes to semiconductor and solar makers who measure contamination in parts per billion. Hydrochloric acid, chlorine, caustic soda and chlorinated byproducts run through these plants in volume, and nothing handles hydrogen chloride across its full concentration range as reliably as a PTFE liner inside a steel shell, vented because HCl permeates PTFE. Brine wells at Ludington and Manistee still support bromine and magnesium compound production, and bromine attacks nearly every alloy; PTFE and PVDF resist it chemically, though bromine permeates them, so the housings are vented.

Detroit, the Rouge and the Downriver belt

Michigan's only refinery sits beside the Rouge River in southwest Detroit, running about 140,000 barrels a day of mostly heavy, sour crude. Heavier crude means more sulfur, sour water, spent caustic and acid handling, all lined-pipe services. The Downriver chemical plants around Wyandotte pump water into the salt bed and bring up brine for chlor-alkali and derivative chemistry, which puts chlorine, caustic, hydrochloric acid and hypochlorite on their pipe racks. The regional water resource recovery facility on the Detroit River is widely regarded as the largest single-site wastewater treatment plant in North America, serving roughly 2.8 million people in Detroit and 76 suburbs, and it feeds sodium hypochlorite and sodium bisulfite continuously. Around all of this is the auto industry: steel pickling in hydrochloric acid at Dearborn, phosphate and zirconium pretreatment lines, electrocoat paint shops, and plating shops running chromic, nitric and sulfuric acid. Lined ball and plug valves and small-bore lined spools are the workhorses of those feed systems.

West Michigan, the Thumb and the Upper Peninsula

Pharmaceutical manufacturing at Kalamazoo and Portage ranks among the largest concentrations of its kind in the world, with active ingredient synthesis that depends on solvents, acids and high-purity water. Battery cell plants at Lansing and Holland, and the lithium iron phosphate battery park under construction at Marshall all use electrolyte solvents, process acids and deionized water where any metallic contamination is a defect. In the Thumb, sugar beet factories at Bay City, Caro, Croswell and Sebewaing turn out well over a billion pounds of sugar a year using lime, sulfur dioxide, ion-exchange regenerants and hot caustic and acid cleaning cycles. Across the Straits, the Upper Peninsula hosts the only primary nickel mine in the United States in Marquette County, with ore milled at the Humboldt Mill using flotation reagents and acidic process water, along with pulp and paper mills whose bleach plants run chlorine dioxide, sodium hypochlorite and caustic.

Lined pipe, valves and accessories for Michigan

Our custom lined pipe spools come in PTFE, PVDF or polypropylene inside carbon steel or 304/316 stainless housings, up to 20 ft long, with lined elbows, tees, reducers, laterals and instrument tees to match. For isolation and control we supply lined ball, plug, butterfly, diaphragm, check and sampling valves, lined with PFA or PTFE. Lined strainers, expansion joints, spacers, spectacle blinds, sight glasses and solid PTFE pipe complete the system.

Michigan winters make temperature maintenance part of the design. Saturated brine, 50 percent caustic and sodium hypochlorite all freeze, crystallize or degrade on an exposed rack between December and March. We supply clamp-on steam heaters, electric heat tracing and heat-transfer compound that mount outside the lined spool, a heated line without a full steam jacket. Our Other Products page lists the rest of the catalog.

Why the standards matter

Our lined pipe and fittings comply with ASTM F1545, our fittings conform dimensionally to ANSI B16.5, and the lined fittings we supply are welded to ASME B31.3 by welders certified to ASME Section IX. Each lined pipe spool and fitting gets a minimum 10,000-volt spark test before it leaves Fairhope. Liner selection charts and pressure, temperature and vacuum ratings are on our Technical Details page.

Serving Detroit, Midland, Kalamazoo, Grand Rapids and the U.P.

We ship to plants in Detroit, Dearborn, Wyandotte and the Downriver communities, Flint, Lansing, Midland, Bay City and Saginaw, Port Huron and St. Clair, Kalamazoo, Grand Rapids, Holland, Ludington and Manistee, and north to Marquette, Escanaba and the Upper Peninsula. Email a marked-up isometric to info@linedpipe.com, call (251) 625-4949, or contact us online.

FAQ: Lined Pipe in Michigan

What liner do you recommend for hydrochloric acid and chlorosilane service in the Midland and Saginaw area?

PTFE-lined pipe and fittings, in vented housings because HCl permeates PTFE, handle hydrochloric acid at any concentration and resist the chlorinated streams that come with silicone and trichlorosilane chemistry. For ultra-high-purity sections feeding polysilicon or semiconductor work, we quote PTFE-lined spools and lined diaphragm valves.

Can plastic-lined pipe carry brine and bromine from Michigan's salt and brine operations?

Yes. Saturated sodium chloride brine, calcium chloride and magnesium chloride brines are routine PTFE-lined service, with PVDF or polypropylene available where a specification calls for them, and PTFE and PVDF are among the few materials that stand up to bromine, which attacks nearly every common alloy, though bromine permeates both, so we specify liner thickness and vented housings for bromine service.

Do you supply lined pipe for sodium hypochlorite and bisulfite feed at Detroit-area wastewater plants?

We do. Hypochlorite feed lines are a classic application for PTFE-lined pipe, or PVDF for dilute or lower-pH hypochlorite, and lined ball or diaphragm valves, because hypochlorite pits stainless and degrades on contact with metal ions. Our fittings mate to standard ANSI B16.5 flanges.

How do you handle freeze protection for outdoor caustic and brine lines in a Michigan winter?

We offer clamp-on steam heaters, electric heat tracing and heat-transfer compound that install over the lined spool. They keep 50 percent caustic above its crystallization point and saturated brine fluid without the expense of a fully jacketed pipe system.