Plastic Lined Industrial Valves in Arkansas
Arkansas pulls bromine from Smackover brine, pickles sheet steel in one of the leading steel-producing counties in the country, bleaches kraft pulp in the southwest corner of the state and pilots lithium extraction from that same brine. Bromine, pickle liquor, chlorine dioxide and lithium chloride share one trait: they eat metal valves.
Marspec Technical Products of Fairhope, Alabama has fabricated plastic lined piping for more than half a century, and lined valves go into most systems we build. Our PTFE and PFA lined valves ship to Arkansas with the spools and fittings they mate to. Call (251) 625-4949 or contact us online with the service conditions.
Where lined valves earn their keep in Arkansas
South Arkansas brine and chemicals
Union and Columbia counties sit over Smackover brine carrying 4,000 to 4,600 parts per million bromide, and plants around El Dorado and Magnolia have long produced nearly all of the bromine made in the United States. Freeing bromine with chlorine puts chlorine, bromine, hydrobromic acid and hot brine in one plant, and PFA lined ball and plug valves, with a vented ball or plug (vent facing upstream), do the isolation. El Dorado also has a nitrogen complex making nitric acid and ammonium nitrate and an 80,000 barrel per day refinery. Direct lithium extraction pilots pull lithium chloride from the same brine for conversion to battery grade lithium carbonate, and their acid, caustic and eluate lines belong on lined valves.
Steel on the Mississippi River
Mississippi County has grown from a single mill near Blytheville into one of the leading steel-producing counties in the nation, with sheet, structural, tube and rebar mills between Blytheville, Hickman and Osceola. Sheet is pickled in hot hydrochloric acid before galvanizing, and the spent liquor is regenerated back to HCl or neutralized. Iron chloride and scale in that liquor destroy unlined valves; the usual package is lined plug valves on acid circulation, lined ball valves on fresh and regenerated acid, lined butterflies on rinse water and lined checks at the acid pumps.
Pulp and paper
Ashdown makes bleached softwood kraft, much of it fluff pulp, Pine Bluff makes bleached liquid packaging board and cupstock, Morrilton runs a kraft mill, and Crossett makes tissue. Bleaching means chlorine dioxide generated on site from sodium chlorate and sulfuric acid, plus caustic, peroxide and chloride-rich filtrates. On chlorine dioxide, where titanium is the usual metal benchmark, lined valves are a proven alternative: PFA-lined diaphragm valves on generator and tower lines, lined plug valves on chlorate and acid, lined butterfly valves on filtrate. Chlorine dioxide permeates the PTFE face of the diaphragm, so on those lines we supply the PTFE/FPM diaphragm, whose FPM backing resists it, rather than the standard PTFE/EPDM.
Rice, poultry and food processing
Arkansas grows close to half of the nation's rice and ranks third in broilers, with rice mills at Stuttgart and Jonesboro and poultry plants in the Ozarks and the River Valley. Food plants are not chemical plants, but their sanitation systems are: caustic and acid clean-in-place, peracetic acid and hypochlorite in chiller water, hexane in rice bran and soybean oil extraction. Lined diaphragm valves on sanitizer dosing and lined ball valves on CIP chemicals keep metal ions out of both.
Alumina, specialty chemicals and utilities
Saline County's old bauxite district produces specialty calcined alumina, and Batesville hosts a custom batch chemical plant that also makes biodiesel near 60 million gallons a year on methanol, sodium methoxide and sulfuric acid. The state's coal and gas stations and the water plants of Little Rock and Northwest Arkansas dose hypochlorite, sulfuric acid and caustic, lined valve territory as well.
Valve types we supply
Sizes vary by pattern, from 1/2" ball, plug and diaphragm valves up to 42" butterflies; our plastic lined valves page lists every size, lining and rating, and here is where each type fits in Arkansas.
Diaphragm valves
They are weir type, 1/2" through 8", with a PFA-lined body and a PTFE-faced diaphragm that seals the stem off from the process. Use them to throttle chlorine dioxide, peracetic acid and hypochlorite, and wherever solids would foul a seat.
Ball valves
PFA lined body and ball, 1/2" through 10", give bubble tight quarter-turn shutoff on bromine, HCl, caustic and solvents, with a bore that drains clean. The default isolation valve for chemical transfer. Hexane and many other 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.
Plug valves
PFA-lined cylindrical plug valves, 1/2" through 2" full port and 3" through 6" reduced port, are cavity-free, with no in-line adjustment: torque stays low and pickle scale or crystals have nowhere to pack on acid and brine.
Butterfly valves
PFA encapsulated disc in a PTFE-lined wafer or lug body, 1" through 42", for bleach plant filtrate, rinse water, dilute acid and brine where a light, economical valve is enough.
Check valves
Lined ball and disc checks protect pumps on hypochlorite, brine reinjection, acid transfer and demineralized water, with nothing metallic in the path to stick or corrode.
Sampling valves
Lined sampling valves take a clean, representative sample from pressurized bromine, lithium chloride or acid lines with no dead leg and no operator exposure, which matters when purity is the spec.
Matching valves to the lined pipe system
We quote valves with the plastic lined pipe and fittings they bolt to: spools and fittings 1/2" through 12" with PTFE, PVDF or polypropylene liners, in carbon steel or 304/316 stainless housings. Our fittings match ANSI B16.5 dimensions and are welded to ASME B31.3 by welders certified to ASME Section IX, every lined spool and fitting leaving our shop passes a minimum 10,000-volt spark test, and our lined pipe and fittings comply with ASTM F1545. Liner temperature limits, liner thicknesses, flange dimensions and torque tables are on our technical details page.
Serving Arkansas statewide
Spools and fittings ship nationwide from Fairhope, Alabama. We supply Swissfluid PFA- and PTFE-lined valves and build automated valve packages in house; Swissfluid USA supports its national distribution network from its facility in Stafford, Texas. Little Rock, Pine Bluff, El Dorado, Magnolia, Camden, Texarkana, Batesville, Jonesboro, Blytheville, Osceola, Stuttgart, Fort Smith, Springdale and Fayetteville get the same lined valves, spools and fittings.
Send us the media, concentration, temperature, pressure and line size, and whether the valve isolates, throttles, samples or prevents backflow. Call (251) 625-4949 or contact us online.
FAQ: Plastic Lined Industrial Valves in Arkansas
What valve lining works on bromine and hydrobromic acid at the south Arkansas brine plants?
PFA, the lining on our ball, plug and diaphragm valves. Wet bromine attacks nearly every metal and most elastomers, while fluoropolymers resist it chemically, though bromine does permeate them. We recommend PFA lined ball or plug valves for isolation and lined diaphragm valves with the PTFE/FPM diaphragm for throttling, since bromine permeates the PTFE face and attacks an EPDM backing; the body material is chosen for the outside environment rather than the process.
Can lined valves take the hot hydrochloric pickle liquor at the Mississippi County steel mills?
Yes. PTFE and PFA resist hydrochloric acid at any concentration, though HCl permeates them as temperature rises, and lined plug valves tolerate the iron chloride and scale that pickle lines carry. Tell us the operating temperature; most pickle circuits run well inside the rating of a PFA lined valve.
Which lined valves fit a chlorine dioxide bleach plant at Ashdown or Pine Bluff?
PFA-lined diaphragm valves on generator and bleach tower lines, lined plug valves on sodium chlorate and sulfuric acid feed, and lined butterfly valves on filtrate and washer lines. Chlorine dioxide and its chloride-rich filtrates corrode stainless steel quickly, and lined valves cost less than the alloy alternatives.
Do lined valves fit the lithium brine projects in the Smackover Formation?
Direct lithium extraction runs hot chloride brine, hydrochloric acid for sorbent regeneration, caustic for softening and lithium chloride eluate. The brine, acid and eluate attack carbon steel and pit stainless, and a lined valve adds no metal to any of them. Lined ball, plug, diaphragm and check valves fit that service, and we quote them with matching lined pipe and fittings.