Lined Pipe in Ohio

Ohio refines crude at Toledo, Lima and Canton, pours raw steel at Cleveland and Middletown, makes chlorine and titanium dioxide on the Lake Erie shore, and leads the country in polymer and plastics output. Every one of those operations moves acid, caustic, brine or solvent through pipe. Marspec Technical Products fabricates plastic-lined pipe spools and supplies lined fittings and valves for that work, with spools shipping to Ohio from our shop in Fairhope, Alabama. Call (251) 625-4949 to talk through a job.

We have spent more than half a century lining steel pipe with PTFE, PVDF and polypropylene. Send us a drawing, a line list or just a problem line: contact us online and we will quote it.

Where lined pipe works hardest in Ohio

Refining and chemicals from Toledo to the Ohio River

Two refineries sit side by side on the east side of Toledo, a third at Lima runs on the order of 180,000 barrels a day, and a fourth operates at Canton. Refineries use lined pipe wherever spent caustic, alkylation sulfuric acid, amine solutions and sour water would eat carbon steel: caustic treating, acid handling, the wastewater plant and the chemical unloading racks. Lima also hosts nitrogen fertilizer production, which means ammonia, nitric acid and urea solutions. Downstream, the Cincinnati region counts several hundred chemical and materials companies, from surfactant and specialty-chemical plants to coatings and ink makers, and Akron remains a center for rubber and polymer chemistry. Those plants handle hydrochloric and sulfuric acid, caustic soda, chlorinated solvents and monomers, the media PTFE liners were developed for.

Steel, pickling and galvanizing

Ohio accounts for roughly a tenth of United States raw steel production, with integrated mills at Cleveland and Middletown, nine electric-arc furnace mills across the northern third of the state and a direct-reduced iron plant in Toledo. Before hot-rolled coil can be cold-rolled or galvanized it passes through a pickling line: hot hydrochloric acid, rinse water loaded with iron chloride, and acid regeneration plants that recover HCl from spent liquor. Galvanizers around Cleveland, Canton and Columbus add zinc ammonium chloride flux and caustic degreasing tanks. PTFE- and PVDF-lined spools with PTFE-lined plug valves give better temperature margin and far easier inspection than the rubber-lined pipe these lines were built with; the PTFE housings are vented because hot HCl permeates the liner.

Chlor-alkali, pigments and salt on Lake Erie

Ashtabula is home to a titanium dioxide complex and to a chlor-alkali plant that is one of only a few domestic producers of potassium hydroxide. The chloride process for TiO2 runs on chlorine, titanium tetrachloride and hydrochloric acid, while a chlor-alkali cell room moves saturated brine, wet chlorine, caustic potash and hypochlorite. Under Lake Erie, rock salt mines at Cleveland and Fairport Harbor feed deicing and chemical markets, and brine is as hard on carbon steel as acid. All of it is textbook lined-pipe service: PTFE for wet chlorine, hypochlorite, brine and caustic alike, with polypropylene available for brine and caustic where a specification calls for it.

Add the corn ethanol plants scattered across the northwest and west-central counties (sulfuric acid, caustic and CIP chemicals), the coal-fired units along the Ohio River with wet flue-gas desulfurization scrubbers (limestone slurry, chloride-rich blowdown, gypsum dewatering), municipal water plants on Lake Erie and the Ohio River feeding sodium hypochlorite, ferric chloride and fluorosilicic acid, and the semiconductor fab under construction in Licking County east of Columbus, which will need ultra-pure water and high-purity acid distribution once it comes online.

What Marspec ships into Ohio

We fabricate custom lined pipe spools and supply lined fittings from 1/2" through 12", in carbon steel or 304 and 316 stainless housings, with PTFE, PVDF or polypropylene liners selected for the fluid and temperature. Straight spools run up to 20 ft, and we fabricate to your isometric, including odd lengths, offsets and flange orientations. Elbows, tees, crosses, reducers and laterals are all available lined.

• Lined valves: PTFE-lined ball, plug, butterfly, diaphragm, check and sampling valves in sizes that match the pipe
• Piping accessories: lined strainers, expansion joints, PTFE spacers and spectacle blinds, sight glasses and solid PTFE pipe
• Temperature maintenance: clamp-on steam heaters, electric tracing and heat-transfer compound for lined lines that have to stay warm
• Related products, including custom PTFE machining and fluoropolymer coating

Temperature maintenance matters more in Ohio than on the Gulf Coast. Fifty percent caustic soda starts to crystallize in the mid fifties Fahrenheit, and concentrated sulfuric acid can freeze on a January night in Toledo. A lined spool with a clamp-on steam heater or electric tracing under the insulation keeps the line flowing without the thermal stress of a fully jacketed alloy pipe.

Built to the standards your spec calls for

Our lined pipe and fittings comply with ASTM F1545. Fittings conform dimensionally to ANSI B16.5, so they bolt up to the flanges already in your rack. Lined fittings 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. Pressure, vacuum and temperature ratings by liner are on our technical details page.

From the lakefront to the river

We supply lined piping to plants in Cleveland, Toledo, Columbus, Cincinnati, Akron, Canton, Youngstown, Dayton, Lima, Ashtabula, Marietta and the Ohio River towns in between. Whether you are replacing one corroded spool on a pickling line or piping a new unloading station, call (251) 625-4949 or contact us online for a quote. We fabricate custom spools in our own shop and ship them nationwide from Fairhope, Alabama.

FAQ: Lined Pipe in Ohio

Which liner should an Ohio steel mill use on a hydrochloric acid pickling line?

PTFE, which handles HCl at pickling temperatures and on the hotter acid regeneration return lines, so the pickling line runs on one liner; PVDF is an option within its 275 °F limit, and polypropylene is available for acid below about 150 °F where a specification calls for it. Any of them in a carbon steel housing avoids the alloy upgrades that HCl would otherwise force.

Can lined pipe handle wet chlorine and hypochlorite at a Lake Erie chlor-alkali or water plant?

Yes. PTFE-lined pipe, fittings and valves are the standard answer for wet chlorine, sodium hypochlorite and caustic in cell rooms and water treatment chemical feed systems, where carbon steel and most stainless grades fail quickly.

Do you supply the spools needed for refinery caustic and spent acid service in Toledo or Lima?

We supply PTFE-lined spools and fittings for caustic treating, spent sulfuric acid and sour water lines, with PVDF an option on the spent acid, built to your isometrics and flange standards, with full-vacuum-rated liners where units pull vacuum.

How do we keep lined caustic lines from freezing outdoors in an Ohio winter?

Use a lined spool with a clamp-on steam heater or electric tracing under the insulation, with heat-transfer compound to improve contact. This maintains temperature evenly without the stress a jacketed alloy pipe puts on the liner.