Lined Pipe in Tennessee

Tennessee's corrosive chemistry follows its rivers. Acetyls are made on the Holston, and chlorine and polysilicon on the Hiwassee. Titanium dioxide and kraft linerboard are made along the Tennessee River. Clarksville, on the Cumberland, has a zinc smelter and a cathode plant, and the Mississippi a refinery and a hypochlorite producer. At its Fairhope, Alabama shop, Marspec Technical Products fabricates PTFE-, PVDF- and polypropylene-lined pipe spools, and it supplies matching lined fittings and valves. Call (251) 625-4949.

We have spent more than fifty years in plastic-lined piping. Send a spool list, an isometric or the history of a line that keeps failing, and contact us online for a price.

Three metro pages and the rest of the state

Three parts of Tennessee have pages of their own: Kingsport and the Tri-Cities, Chattanooga with Cleveland and Charleston, and Memphis with its port. Each gives a plant-by-plant account. This page is the statewide view, and it spends most of its words on the industry between those metros.

Clarksville: zinc and cathode material

The zinc smelter beside the Cumberland at Clarksville was commissioned in 1978 to treat Tennessee Valley zinc concentrates. It runs the roast, leach and electrolysis route and turns its roaster gas into sulfuric acid. Cadmium metal and germanium concentrate come out of the same plant.

Leach solution, zinc sulfate electrolyte, weak acid from gas cleaning and finished sulfuric acid all corrode carbon steel. PTFE-lined spools carry every one of them. PVDF is an option on solids-bearing leach lines kept within velocity limits, since it is the toughest, most abrasion-resistant of the three liners.

Elsewhere in Clarksville, LG Chem's cathode plant is built for 60,000 tons a year of NCMA cathode material. Cathode and precursor plants handle nickel, cobalt and manganese sulfates, caustic, ammonia and lithium hydroxide, and none of it may pick up iron. PTFE takes the caustic, ammonia and hydroxide: strong caustic attacks PVDF, and we prefer PTFE for ammonia. The calcining kilns are not lined-pipe service; the solution side is.

South of Nashville, the GM and LG Energy Solution cell plant at Spring Hill makes lithium iron phosphate (LFP) cells for energy storage. Cell plants recover NMP solvent from electrode coating, and their electrolyte forms hydrofluoric acid when it meets moisture. Where PTFE carries HF-bearing waste, we specify heavy-wall liners and vented housings.

Titanium dioxide and linerboard on the Tennessee River

At New Johnsonville, Chemours makes titanium dioxide pigment by the chloride process, with chlorine from a third-party chlor-alkali plant on the same site. Dry chlorine and titanium tetrachloride normally travel in steel. Once either meets moisture it forms hydrochloric acid, and that wet side is PTFE service in vented housings.

Upriver at Counce, in Hardin County, a mill makes kraft linerboard on two machines. A linerboard mill's lined pipe typically carries sulfuric acid for splitting tall oil soap, pH control chemicals and effluent treatment.

East Tennessee, power and water

Loudon County has a corn wet mill. Wet milling steeps corn in dilute sulfurous acid, and sweetener refining relies on ion exchange, with hydrochloric acid and caustic to regenerate the resin.

TVA's coal and gas plants regenerate demineralizers and condensate polishers with sulfuric acid and caustic, and its remaining coal units scrub flue gas. Water utilities across the state feed hypochlorite or chlorine, fluorosilicic acid and coagulants. Commercial 12.5 percent hypochlorite runs at about pH 12 to 13 with free caustic, so it goes in PTFE. PVDF is kept for weaker, lower-pH solutions.

What we build and supply for Tennessee

We fabricate lined spools from 1/2" through 12", as long as 20 ft, with ANSI B16.5 flanges on carbon steel or 304/316 stainless housings. PTFE is our recommended liner. PVDF fits high-purity water and, within velocity limits, abrasive service, and polypropylene is available where a specification calls for it. PTFE lined fittings in carbon and stainless steel are stocked; PVDF and polypropylene are lined to order.

Our Tennessee fittings page covers elbows, tees, reducers and replacements matched to an installed system. Our Tennessee valve page sets valve patterns against the state's services. Swissfluid PFA- and PTFE-lined valves, stocked in Stafford, Texas, ship from Fairhope, Alabama, and we build automated valve packages in house. Sizes by pattern are on our lined valves page.

Winter matters here. Outdoor lines of 50 percent caustic and 98 percent sulfuric acid in Clarksville or Knoxville can crystallize or freeze on a January morning. Electric tracing, clamp-on steam heaters and heat transfer compound keep them moving. Lined strainers, PTFE expansion joints, spacers and spectacle blinds are on our Tennessee accessories page. Liner temperature limits, liner thicknesses, flange dimensions and torque tables are on our Technical Details page.

How we build and test

Every lined spool and fitting is spark tested at a minimum of 10,000 volts before it ships. Our lined pipe and fittings comply with ASTM F1545, and fittings conform dimensionally to ANSI B16.5. The lined fittings we supply are welded to ASME B31.3 by welders certified to ASME Section IX. Carbon steel housings are primed for field top-coating.

Where we ship in Tennessee

Spools go from Fairhope to Nashville, Clarksville, Spring Hill, Columbia, Lewisburg, Jackson, New Johnsonville, Counce, Cookeville, Knoxville, Oak Ridge, Loudon and Lenoir City. Tell us your required date when you request a quote. Every order comes with a quoted fabrication time. To start, call (251) 625-4949 or contact us online.

FAQ: Lined Pipe in Tennessee

Which liner suits the sulfuric acid and zinc sulfate electrolyte at a Clarksville zinc plant?

PTFE, which takes the leach solution, electrolyte, weak acid and product acid alike. PVDF is an option on dilute, solids-bearing lines. It also handles product acid up to roughly 93 percent strength when cool, but 98 percent acid and oleum need PTFE. Where a specification calls for it, polypropylene is available on the dilute, cooler acid lines.

What lined pipe does a Tennessee cathode or battery cell plant use?

PTFE for caustic, ammonia and lithium hydroxide, and for HF-bearing waste with heavy-wall liners and vented housings. PVDF suits high-purity water and metal sulfate solutions, but strong caustic attacks it, and we prefer PTFE for ammonia.

Can lined pipe handle the wet chlorine and hydrochloric acid at a chloride-process TiO2 plant like New Johnsonville?

Yes. PTFE-lined pipe and PFA-lined valves carry wet chlorine, hydrochloric acid and scrubber liquor, in vented housings because both permeate the liner. Dry chlorine and titanium tetrachloride usually stay in steel.

Do you serve Tennessee plants outside Kingsport, Chattanooga and Memphis?

Yes. Lined pipe, fittings and valves ship nationwide from Fairhope, Alabama, to plants anywhere in the state, from Clarksville and Nashville to New Johnsonville and Counce.