Lined Pipe in South Carolina

From the tire plants of the Upstate to the chemical campus on the Cooper River, South Carolina makes things that need acid, caustic and solvent piping that will not corrode! Marspec Technical Products fabricates PTFE-, PVDF- and polypropylene-lined steel pipe spools and fittings and supplies lined valves, piping accessories and temperature-maintenance products for exactly those lines. Call 251-625-4949 or contact us online and tell us what you are moving.

We have spent more than half a century in plastic-lined piping, working from Fairhope, Alabama, and shipping nationwide. South Carolina is a short haul for us, and its mix of nuclear, paper, chemical and manufacturing work is one we know well.

South Carolina's process industries, region by region

Lowcountry: the Cooper River chemical corridor

Berkeley County's Bushy Park is a 1,530-acre chemical manufacturing campus near the Port of Charleston, with shared utilities and rail and water access that keep attracting new units, most recently a nitroguanidine plant for the defense supply chain. Nitroguanidine chemistry means nitric acid, sulfuric acid and caustic neutralization, and the specialty and pine-chemical producers around North Charleston run their own acid, solvent and resin streams. The steel mill at Huger pickles coil in hydrochloric acid and regenerates it, and the battery-recycling plant going up at Ridgeville will leach black mass in sulfuric acid and recover lithium, nickel and cobalt by hydrometallurgy. Every one of those streams is a textbook case for PTFE- or PVDF-lined pipe, because the liner handles hot nitric, HCl pickle liquor and sulfate leach solutions at carbon steel prices.

Midlands and Pee Dee: nuclear fuel, kraft mills and batteries

South Carolina is one of the top five states most reliant on nuclear power, and it builds the fuel too. The fuel fabrication plant in Columbia converts uranium hexafluoride to uranium dioxide pellets, a process that produces hydrofluoric acid and uses nitric acid and ammonium hydroxide; the Savannah River Site near Aiken processes nuclear materials and legacy waste with nitric acid and caustic on a scale few plants anywhere match. Lined pipe and lined diaphragm valves are the standard answer for HF and nitric service in both places. The kraft and containerboard mills at Catawba, Eastover, Hartsville and Bennettsville run bleach plants on chlorine dioxide, sodium chlorate, caustic, peroxide and sulfuric acid, and the battery cell plant at Florence adds electrolyte solvents and N-methylpyrrolidone recovery to the Pee Dee's list.

Upstate: tires, textiles and reactors

The state is the country's leading tire producer, turning out more than 99,000 tires a day across plants in Greenville, Spartanburg, Anderson, Aiken, Sumter and Chester counties and accounting for roughly a third of United States tire exports. Tire cord is brass-plated and pickled in sulfuric acid and copper and zinc sulfate baths, and compounding and cement areas handle solvents and process oils. The Upstate's remaining textile finishers mercerize in caustic and bleach with peroxide and hypochlorite. The reactors at Seneca and York dose boric acid, sodium hydroxide and hydrazine and polish demineralized water, all services where a lined valve or spool keeps iron out of the chemistry.

What we supply to South Carolina plants

For acid, solvent and chlorine dioxide lines: custom lined pipe spools and fittings, 1/2" through 12", with PTFE, PVDF or polypropylene liners in carbon steel or 304/316 stainless housings, fabricated to your isometrics in lengths up to 20 ft. Elbows, tees, crosses, laterals, reducers, reducing flanges and instrument tees are built to the same liner specification.

For shutoff, throttling and sampling: PTFE- and PFA-lined ball, plug, butterfly, diaphragm, check and sampling valves. For the rest of the line: lined strainers, expansion joints, spacers, spectacle blinds, sight glasses and solid PTFE pipe from our piping accessories range.

For lines that freeze, crystallize or thicken: jacketed lined pipe, clamp-on steam heaters, electric tracing and heat-transfer compound. Fifty percent caustic crystallizes at roughly 54 F, and the Upstate sees nights well below that, so a traced caustic header at a mill or chemical plant is cheap insurance against a plugged line in January. Dimensional data, liner thicknesses and torque tables are on our Technical Details page.

Quality you can write into the spec

Our products 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 part gets a minimum 10,000-volt spark test to catch liner defects before they reach a nuclear fuel line or a bleach plant.

Serving Charleston, Columbia, Greenville and the rest of the state

We ship to Charleston, North Charleston, Goose Creek, Moncks Corner, Summerville, Columbia, Aiken, Orangeburg, Florence, Hartsville, Rock Hill, Greenville, Spartanburg, Anderson, Greenwood and Seneca. Send us a spool list, a valve takeoff or the line you cannot keep steel in, and we will quote custom spools and valves to match. Call 251-625-4949 or contact us online.

FAQ: Lined Pipe in South Carolina

Do you supply lined pipe for hydrofluoric and nitric acid at South Carolina nuclear fuel and materials sites?

Yes. PTFE-lined pipe and PTFE-lined diaphragm and plug valves are a common specification for HF and nitric service, and we can supply stainless housings where the site standard calls for them. Full material certification is available with the order.

Which liner suits chlorine dioxide and bleach plant service at a Midlands or Pee Dee kraft mill?

PTFE for chlorine dioxide, chlorate and hot caustic, and for the cooler caustic, filtrate and hypochlorite lines on the same liner specification; polypropylene is available for cooler caustic and filtrate where a specification calls for it. Lined plug and butterfly valves handle the isolation.

Can lined pipe handle sulfuric acid leach and pickle liquor at a Lowcountry steel or battery-recycling plant?

It can. PTFE and PVDF liners are rated for sulfuric acid across the concentration range used in leaching and for hydrochloric pickle liquor, and the smooth liner resists scaling. Tell us the temperature and solids loading and we will size the spools and valves.

How does ordering work for a plant in Charleston or Greenville?

Send drawings, a line list or even a photo of the failed section. We quote from Fairhope, Alabama, build custom spools to your dimensions, spark test them and ship nationwide.