Lined Pipe in New Orleans, LA

The fifty-four river miles above New Orleans, through St. Charles, St. John the Baptist and St. James parishes, make up the largest tonnage port in the Western Hemisphere, with four refineries, eleven petrochemical complexes and more than fifty docks along the Port of South Louisiana. Chlorine, caustic, spent acid, sour water and hot sugar liquor all move through pipe in those parishes every day. Marspec Technical Products fabricates the plastic-lined pipe spools and supplies the lined fittings and valves that carry them, with spools shipping from Fairhope, Alabama, a Gulf Coast neighbor. Call (251) 625-4949.

We have been in the plastic-lined piping business for more than half a century. For a quote on PTFE-, PVDF- or polypropylene-lined spools and fittings, or on PFA- and PTFE-lined valves, contact us online with a drawing or a tag list.

St. Charles Parish: Norco, Taft, Hahnville and Luling

Norco has run a refinery and chemical complex since 1929, with an ethylene and propylene cracker beside the fuels units, and a second refinery sits next door. Across the river at Taft, a 2,000-acre chemical site assembled from two older plants makes ethylene, polyethylene, polyethylene glycol, acrylic acid, latex and ethylene oxide derivatives, and a chlor-alkali plant that started up in 1966 produces chlorine, caustic soda and potassium hydroxide behind an 800-megawatt cogeneration unit. Downriver at Luling, the glyphosate plant runs phosphorus trichloride, hydrochloric acid, caustic and formaldehyde chemistry. Every one of those is lined-pipe service: wet chlorine, hypochlorite, cell liquor and caustic, ethylene oxide scrubber caustic and glycol-plant acid in PTFE, and refinery alkylation acid and spent caustic in PTFE-lined spools with lined plug valves; polypropylene is available for the cooler cell liquor and caustic lines where a specification calls for it.

St. John and St. James: Garyville, LaPlace, Convent and Gramercy

Garyville is the third-largest refinery in the country at about 617,000 barrels a day on 3,500 acres, with alkylation, coking, hydrocracking and sulfur recovery units that need lined pipe for spent acid, sour water, rich amine and the wastewater plant. LaPlace is home to the neoprene plant that made chloroprene from butadiene and chlorine from the late 1960s until production was suspended in May 2025, a process that generated hydrochloric acid and consumed caustic at every stage. Convent and Gramercy hold a direct-reduced iron plant, the phosphoric acid plant that pipes its acid across the river to the ammonia and phosphate fertilizer works near Donaldsonville (phosphate production at both was idled in August 2026), a Bayer-process alumina refinery that digests bauxite in hot caustic, a cane sugar refinery and some of the busiest grain elevators on the river. Wet-process phosphoric acid with its dissolved fluoride, 50 percent caustic, spent sulfuric from the alumina plant's heat-exchanger cleaning and the sugar refinery's carbonatation and ion-exchange regeneration acids are all PTFE-lined work, with PVDF an option on the acids and polypropylene available for the cooler lines where a specification calls for it.

Sugar, water and the city's own plants

Below the city, Chalmette has a cane sugar refinery that was the first in the country to pass a million tons in a year, and the refineries at Chalmette and Meraux. On the west bank at Waggaman, a chemical complex makes acrylonitrile, melamine and sulfuric acid, which puts hydrogen cyanide, ammonia, oleum and spent acid regeneration on one site. Sugar refining depends on hot lime and carbon dioxide carbonatation, hydrochloric acid and caustic regeneration of ion-exchange resin, and CIP acids and caustics, and the sewerage and water board plants that draw from the river feed ferric sulfate, chlorine, lime and fluoride. Lined pipe fits the acid, caustic and chemical feed lines among them because the liner takes the chemistry and the carbon steel shell takes the pressure; lime slurry usually runs in carbon steel, HDPE or rubber-lined pipe.

What we fabricate for the River Parishes

Custom lined pipe spools and lined fittings in 1/2" through 12", straight spools to 20 ft, carbon steel or 304 and 316 stainless housings, lined with PTFE, PVDF or polypropylene. We build to isometrics, hold ANSI B16.5 flange dimensions and match the face-to-face of the lined system already in the unit, so turnaround spools install without field adjustment.

• Lined ball, plug, butterfly, diaphragm, check and sampling valves in matching sizes, lined with PFA or PTFE
• Accessories: lined strainers and expansion joints, PTFE spacers, spectacle blinds, sight glasses, solid PTFE pipe
• Clamp-on steam heaters, electric tracing and heat-transfer compound for caustic, sugar liquor and viscous lines
• Vessel nozzles, PTFE machining and related products

Temperature maintenance is not only a northern concern. Sugar liquor sets up, 50 percent caustic crystallizes in the fifties, and phosphoric acid thickens as it cools, so River Parish racks that stand idle between barges often carry traced and insulated lined spools.

Standards and testing

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 every lined pipe spool and fitting is spark tested at a minimum of 10,000 volts before it leaves Fairhope. Liner pressure, vacuum and temperature ratings are on the technical details page.

Serving the river from Luling to Chalmette

We ship lined pipe to Norco, Taft, Hahnville, Luling, Destrehan, LaPlace, Reserve, Garyville, Gramercy, Convent, Vacherie, Kenner, Waggaman, Harvey, New Orleans, Chalmette and Meraux. Call (251) 625-4949 or contact us online with your line list, and we will quote a spool package built in Fairhope, Alabama, or a single valve.

FAQ: Lined Pipe in New Orleans, LA

Can you build replacement spools for a Norco or Garyville refinery turnaround?

Yes. Send the isometrics or tag list with the flange standard and liner type on the existing lined system, and we supply PTFE- or PVDF-lined spools and fittings to the same dimensions so they bolt in during the outage. Custom spools built to field dimensions are our specialty.

What liner handles the chlorine, caustic and potassium hydroxide from the Taft cell room?

PTFE for wet chlorine (in vented housings, since chlorine permeates the liner), hypochlorite, caustic and caustic potash, brine and cell liquor alike, hot or cool, so the cell room runs on one liner; polypropylene is available for the cooler caustic and brine lines where a specification calls for it. PTFE-lined plug and ball valves and lined diaphragm valves handle isolation and feed control in the same service.

Which liners suit the phosphoric acid, caustic and sulfuric acid at the Convent and Gramercy plants?

PTFE for the wet-process phosphoric acid with its fluoride, the dilute and concentrated sulfuric acid and the hot 50 percent caustic, one liner across the three; PVDF is an option for sulfuric acid to about 93 percent at ambient temperature (hot concentrated acid stays in PTFE), and polypropylene is available for ambient dilute acid where a specification calls for it. All three liners come in carbon steel housings with ANSI B16.5 flanges.

Do you supply lined pipe to the sugar refineries at Chalmette and Gramercy?

We supply lined spools, fittings and valves for ion-exchange regeneration acid and caustic, CIP chemical feed and the acid and caustic unloading racks at sugar refineries, with steam-traced lined spools where liquor or caustic must stay warm.