Lined Pipe in Philadelphia, PA

The Delaware River below Philadelphia is a working industrial river on both banks: two refineries, an NGL export hub where a third refinery used to be, a fourth refinery turned asphalt and lube plant, chemical works from Bristol down to Deepwater, and a cell and gene therapy cluster. Marspec Technical Products fabricates the PTFE-, PVDF- and polypropylene-lined pipe spools and supplies the lined fittings and valves those operations use for acid, caustic, sour water, solvent and high-purity service, with spools shipping to the Delaware Valley from Fairhope, Alabama. Call (251) 625-4949 to start a quote.

Marspec has been in the plastic-lined piping business for more than fifty years. Contact us online with isometrics, a valve list or a photograph of the spool that failed.

Both banks of the Delaware

Delaware County and Delaware City

The Trainer refinery, 15 miles below the city, runs on the order of 185,000 to 190,000 barrels a day and is tuned toward jet fuel. Next door at Marcus Hook, the old refinery site receives Marcellus ethane and propane on the Mariner East pipelines, stores NGLs in caverns under the former plant, and loads very large gas carriers for export. Farther down at Delaware City, a 5,000-acre refinery rated at 180,000 barrels a day runs medium and heavy sour crude through a 54,500-barrel fluid coker, an 82,000-barrel cat cracker and a 12,500-barrel alkylation unit, with the chemical works at Deepwater on the opposite bank. Alkylation acid, spent caustic, amine, sour water and the acid and caustic of a demineralizer are where lined spools go first in a refinery, and an NGL terminal adds caustic treating and amine to the list.

Paulsboro, Gibbstown and West Deptford

On the New Jersey shore, the Paulsboro refinery runs its 155,000-barrel crude unit toward asphalt, jet fuel, diesel and Group I base oils. A few miles downriver at Gibbstown, the former explosives works has become a port and rail terminal. West Deptford hosts a specialty fluoropolymer plant, and the Gloucester County riverfront holds catalyst, pigment and specialty chemical producers with the acid, caustic and solvent lines our liners were made for.

Bristol, King of Prussia and the Navy Yard

Up the river in Bucks County, a chemical site at Bristol runs plastics, resins and emulsion polymers, which means butyl acrylate, ethyl acrylate, methyl methacrylate and the acid catalysts and caustic that go with them. West of the city, King of Prussia anchors one of the densest biologics and plasma-protein manufacturing areas in the country, and the Navy Yard in South Philadelphia holds the cell therapy plants whose products won first-of-their-kind approvals. Those plants move deionized utility water, buffers, clean-in-place acid and caustic and solvents, and a PTFE-lined spool and a PFA-lined diaphragm valve carry them without shedding iron, chromium or nickel. Many of those 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.

Water and the port

The city water department treats for 1.58 million people at three plants, one on the Delaware and two on the Schuylkill, with 546 million gallons a day of rated capacity, and three water pollution control plants with 522 million gallons a day of design capacity. Hypochlorite, ferric chloride, fluoride and caustic feed at that scale wears out unlined steel on a schedule. On the river itself, the 45-foot channel serves the Packer Avenue and Tioga terminals and the petroleum docks that account for several hundred tanker calls a year.

What we supply to the Delaware Valley

Custom lined pipe spools and fittings in 1/2" through 12": PTFE, PVDF or polypropylene liners in carbon steel or 304 or 316 stainless housings, built to your isometric in straight lengths up to 20 ft, with lined elbows, tees, reducers, crosses and laterals to match. We supply lined valves in ball, plug, butterfly, diaphragm, check and sampling patterns, and the accessories that finish a line: lined strainers and expansion joints, PTFE spacers and spectacle blinds, sight glasses and solid PTFE pipe.

Winter on the river is cold enough to crystallize 50 percent caustic and freeze glacial acrylic acid, which solidifies around 55 °F (13 °C). Our temperature maintenance products, clamp-on steam heaters, electric tracing and heat-transfer compound, keep a lined spool at temperature under the insulation without a jacketed pipe. Steam heaters are for the caustic lines; acrylic acid and acrylate lines take tempered water at 95 °F (35 °C) or less or temperature-limited electric tracing holding 59 to 77 °F (15 to 25 °C), never steam, because overheating can set off runaway polymerization. For jacketed or traced service, we recommend specifying PTFE. Vessel accessories and custom PTFE machining are listed with our other products.

What the spec sheet gets

ASTM F1545 compliance on all lined pipe and fittings. Fittings that conform dimensionally to ANSI B16.5. Lined fittings are welded to ASME B31.3 by welders certified to ASME Section IX. A spark test at a minimum of 10,000 volts on every lined pipe spool and fitting before it ships. Liner temperature limits, liner thicknesses, flange dimensions and torque tables are on our technical details page.

Serving Philadelphia and the river towns

We ship lined piping to Philadelphia, Chester, Trainer, Marcus Hook, Eddystone, Bristol, Croydon, Morrisville, King of Prussia, Conshohocken, Norristown, West Chester, and across the river to Paulsboro, Gibbstown, West Deptford, Camden, Deepwater and Delaware City. For a replacement spool, a valve package or a turnaround order, call (251) 625-4949 or contact us online.

FAQ: Lined Pipe in Philadelphia, PA

Can you supply lined spools for a turnaround at the Trainer or Delaware City refinery on a fixed window?

Yes. We fabricate from your isometrics ahead of the window, spark test every spool and ship from Fairhope, Alabama, then build replacements for the spools that are found pitted once the unit is open.

Does lined pipe belong in a Navy Yard or King of Prussia cell and gene therapy plant?

In utility and CIP service it does. PTFE-lined spools and PFA-lined diaphragm valves give a smooth, metal-free, drainable bore for deionized utility water, buffers, caustic and acid CIP and solvents, with the pressure rating of a steel housing and no metal ion pickup.

Which liner do you recommend for the acrylate and acrylic acid lines at a Bucks County polymer plant?

PTFE for glacial acrylic acid and acrylate monomers, held above the freezing point with tempered water at 95 °F (35 °C) or less or temperature-limited electric tracing holding 59 to 77 °F (15 to 25 °C), never steam, because overheating can set off runaway polymerization. PTFE covers the dilute acid and caustic utilities at lower temperatures as well, with PVDF available on the dilute acid and polypropylene on the dilute acid and caustic where a specification calls for them.

Our wastewater plant has flanged lined piping from several suppliers on its hypochlorite and ferric feed. Will yours bolt up?

It will. Lined pipe built to ASTM F1545 with ANSI B16.5 flanges is interchangeable at the flange, so our PTFE-lined spools for the hypochlorite, PTFE- or PVDF-lined spools for the ferric feed, and lined diaphragm valves or ball valves with a vented ball (vent facing upstream) on the hypochlorite, fit the existing headers without adapters.