Lined Pipe in Texas

Texas is the center of American chemical manufacturing, and most of that chemistry is hard on bare steel. Marspec Technical Products fabricates PTFE-, PVDF- and polypropylene-lined pipe spools and supplies lined fittings, valves and accessories to process plants across the state, with spools shipping from our shop in Fairhope, Alabama. For pricing on a spool list or a valve takeoff, call (251) 625-4949 or contact us online.

We have been in the plastic-lined piping business for more than half a century, long enough to know that a Gulf Coast chlorine header and a Central Texas wafer fab have very different ideas about what a good pipe is. Below is where lined pipe does its work in Texas and what we build for it.

Texas industries that run on lined pipe

Start on the coast. Texas refineries hold more than a quarter of the nation's crude distillation capacity, concentrated at Baytown, Deer Park, Pasadena, Texas City, Beaumont, Port Arthur and Corpus Christi, and the Houston Ship Channel is routinely described as the second-largest petrochemical complex in the world. Around those refineries sit the ethane crackers and derivative units of the Ship Channel, the Golden Triangle of Beaumont, Port Arthur and Orange, and the Coastal Bend around Corpus Christi, Ingleside and Gregory, which together account for most of the country's ethylene capacity. The corrosive streams are familiar: fresh and spent sulfuric acid from alkylation, aqueous hydrofluoric acid from the wet side of HF alkylation (the anhydrous acid itself runs in carbon steel and Monel), spent caustic from cracked-gas scrubbing, sour water, amine solutions and catalyst-regeneration HCl. PTFE-lined pipe carries all of them under one liner specification, which is why acid-transfer and spent-caustic lines are so often lined steel rather than alloy.

Chlor-alkali and vinyls

The Freeport complex in Brazoria County is the largest integrated chemical manufacturing site in the United States, with chlorine, caustic soda and ethylene dichloride capacity measured in millions of tons a year. More chlor-alkali and vinyls capacity runs along the Ship Channel at Deer Park and La Porte and on Corpus Christi Bay at Ingleside. Wet chlorine, 32 percent hydrochloric acid, saturated brine, sodium hypochlorite and 50 percent caustic are the everyday media. PTFE and PVDF liners carry wet chlorine and HCl without the titanium or nickel alloys those streams would otherwise demand, PTFE carries the caustic and brine as well (polypropylene is available for the caustic and dechlorinated brine where a specification calls for it), and PFA-lined plug valves with a vented plug (vent facing upstream) hold tight on wet chlorine gas, and lined diaphragm valves on hypochlorite, where a bare metal seat pits within months.

Semiconductors and battery materials

Texas ranks second in the nation for semiconductor manufacturing firms, with 300 mm wafer fabs at Austin, Sherman and Richardson. Fabs use ultrapure water, hydrofluoric and nitric acid, sulfuric acid, hydrogen peroxide, ammonium hydroxide and solvents. Ultrapure water and electronic-grade chemicals run in solid natural PVDF or PFA; lined pipe and lined valves are for bulk chemical supply, acid waste and neutralization, where the liner keeps the steel out of the stream. On the coast, a lithium hydroxide refinery at Robstown outside Corpus Christi brings caustic leach and lithium hydroxide slurry service, abrasive and alkaline at the same time, to a region that already knows lined piping well.

Water and power round it out. El Paso operates one of the largest inland desalination plants in the world, and municipal plants from Houston to Dallas-Fort Worth to San Antonio dose sodium hypochlorite, ferric salts and sulfuric acid every day. Generating stations across the ERCOT grid run flue gas desulfurization absorbers and demineralized water trains. In the Permian Basin, well acidizing and produced-water handling put 15 percent hydrochloric acid and high-chloride brine through surface piping that carbon steel does not survive.

What we build for Texas plants

Lined spools and fittings run 1/2" through 12", with carbon steel or 304/316 stainless housings and a choice of PTFE, PVDF or polypropylene liner, so one vendor covers the acid header, the caustic loop and the hypochlorite dosing skid. Valve sizes vary by pattern: ball valves 1/2" through 10", plug valves 1/2" through 6", diaphragm valves 1/2" through 8", butterfly valves 1" through 42", ball check and sampling valves 1/2" through 6", and swing check valves 1-1/2" through 24".

• Custom lined pipe spools fabricated to your isometrics in lengths up to 20 ft, plus lined elbows, tees, crosses, laterals, reducers and instrument tees.
• PFA-lined ball, plug, diaphragm, check and sampling valves and PTFE-lined butterfly valves for chlorine gas, acid and caustic shutoff, throttling and sample draw.
• Lined strainers, expansion joints, spacers, spectacle blinds, sight glasses and solid PTFE pipe, the accessories that make a lined system serviceable.
• Clamp-on steam heaters, electric tracing and heat-transfer compound, along with jacketed lined pipe, for 50 percent caustic that crystallizes near 54 °F (12 °C) and for viscous streams that gel when a Gulf Coast cold front comes through. For jacketed or traced service, we recommend specifying PTFE.

Liner temperature limits, liner thicknesses, flange dimensions and torque tables are on our Technical Details page, and our people will help you pick the liner for your stream.

Built to the spec your engineers wrote

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 spool and fitting gets a minimum 10,000-volt spark test before it ships. Carbon steel housings are primed for field topcoat.

Serving the Ship Channel, the Golden Triangle and the rest of Texas

We ship to Houston, Pasadena, Baytown, Deer Park, La Porte, Channelview, Texas City, Freeport, Beaumont, Port Arthur, Orange, Corpus Christi, Victoria, Dallas-Fort Worth, Austin, San Antonio, El Paso, Midland-Odessa and Borger, and to every plant in between. Send us the isometrics, the line list or the valve schedule and we will quote it. Call (251) 625-4949 or contact us online to get started.

FAQ: Lined Pipe in Texas

Do you line pipe for wet chlorine and hydrochloric acid service at Gulf Coast chlor-alkali plants?

Yes. PTFE is our usual recommendation for wet chlorine and 32 percent hydrochloric acid, with PVDF as an option where abrasion resistance matters more than temperature. Spools and fittings come in the same liner, with PFA-lined valves to match, so the system has no weak flange.

Where does lined pipe fit in a Central Texas wafer fab?

In bulk chemical supply, acid waste and neutralization. Ultrapure water and electronic-grade chemicals run in solid natural PVDF or PFA, while lined steel carries the bulk acids and caustic to the chemical distribution systems and takes the acid waste away, with PTFE on hydrofluoric and mixed-acid lines and PVDF on cooler, dilute acid streams.

Can lined pipe handle spent caustic and alkylation acid in a Texas refinery?

PTFE-lined carbon steel is widely used for spent caustic and for fresh and spent sulfuric acid transfer within the liner's temperature limits, which run to roughly 450 °F (232 °C) for PTFE. We will ask for concentration, temperature and vacuum conditions before we quote so the liner matches the service.

Can you build spools for a turnaround at a Port Arthur or Corpus Christi unit?

We build custom spools from your isometrics and ship nationwide from Fairhope, Alabama. Send the drawings as early as the outage schedule allows and we will give you a firm date with the quote.