Plastic Lined Piping Accessories in Florida
Florida mines about half of the country's phosphate rock, most of it from the Bone Valley, and the plants that turn it into fertilizer run on sulfuric and phosphoric acid. Desalination, sugar, cellulose and nylon plants add chemistry of their own. Marspec Technical Products supplies the lined accessories around those lines, statewide from Pensacola to Miami. Call (251) 625-4949 or contact us online.
We work from a shop in Fairhope, Alabama. Our Florida page and our Tampa page describe the state's industries. This page covers the accessories, vessel accessories and heat that keep a lined system in service.
Acid tanks in the phosphate district
The concentrates plants at Bartow, New Wales and Riverview are rated for about 3.7 million tonnes of phosphoric acid a year, counted as P2O5. Each burns molten sulfur to make the sulfuric acid that digests the rock. Concentrated sulfuric acid is usually stored in carbon steel, which survives only while the acid moves slowly and a sulfate film stays on the steel.
Vessel accessories protect the places where that film fails. A dip tube carries incoming acid below the surface instead of letting it run down the shell. Nozzle liners keep acid off the steel at the inlet and outlet nozzles, where velocity is highest. A lined tank bottom valve drains the tank without leaving a pocket of acid at the outlet.
Fluoride changes the list
Wet-process phosphoric acid carries fluoride, and the scrubbers recover fluorosilicic acid from the fumes. Fluoride attacks glass, so a sight flow indicator with a glass window does not belong on those lines. Because HF permeates PTFE, the spools on those lines are built with heavy-wall liners and vented housings. PTFE expansion joints take the movement of evaporator loops, and lined spectacle blinds isolate an evaporator for washout.
Sulfur arrives hot, and so must the acid around it
Molten sulfur reaches Tampa by ship from Texas terminals and travels by truck to the plants. The sulfur itself runs in steam-jacketed carbon steel, not lined pipe. The lined lines nearby need heat for another reason: merchant-grade phosphoric acid thickens and drops solids as it cools.
Fully jacketed pipe and fittings keep heat through flanges and elbows, the cold spots on a traced line. Clamp-on steam heaters are the simpler fix for a valve, a pump casing or a short run. Heat transfer compound fills the air gaps between heater and housing, so heat moves by conduction. On a PVDF-lined spool, choose the steam pressure so the housing stays under the liner's 275 °F limit; PTFE runs to 450 °F.
Desalination, sugar and cellulose
At Apollo Beach, a seawater desalination plant sits beside the Big Bend power station. Its intake is the station's warm cooling water, up to 44 million gallons a day. Reverse osmosis yields up to 25 million gallons a day of drinking water. Chemicals go in ahead of the sand filters to coagulate particles, and again after the membranes to stabilize the water. Lined strainers protect the metering pumps on those feeds, and sight flow indicators let an operator see each one moving.
Clewiston is home to a large producer of refined sugar, and cane evaporators scale up through the season. They are boiled out with caustic and acid. A lined mixing tee can cut 50 percent caustic to cleaning strength with water, right in the line.
At Fernandina Beach, a high-purity cellulose mill, a lignin plant that refines its byproducts and a linerboard mill employ about 1,445 people between them. Their chemical feed lines, and the cellulose mill's bleach plant, take the same blinds, expansion joints and sight flow indicators as any pulp mill. Our pulp and paper page has more.
The Panhandle
North of Pensacola, the nylon complex on the Escambia River makes adipic acid and nylon 6,6 on more than 2,000 acres, and Huntsman makes maleic anhydride on the same site. Adipic acid comes out of its nitric acid solution as crystals when it cools. Lined strainers catch crystals ahead of pumps, and electric tracing keeps transfer lines above the point where solids form. Our Pensacola and Northwest Florida page covers the Panhandle in full.
Machined parts, coatings and the spools behind them
Custom PTFE machining and fluoropolymer powder coating are on our services page, for parts no catalog lists and steel shapes no liner can follow. The accessories bolt to lined spools we fabricate in Fairhope, 1/2" through 12" and up to 20 ft. They also mate with the lined fittings and valves we supply. Our lined pipe and fittings comply with ASTM F1545. Liner limits are on our Technical Details page, and valve selection is on our Florida valve page.
Serving Florida
We serve Tampa, Riverview, Mulberry, Bartow, Lakeland, Plant City, Apollo Beach and Bradenton. Further afield are Clewiston, Belle Glade, Fort Myers, Miami, Fort Pierce, Orlando, Jacksonville, Fernandina Beach, Palatka, Pensacola and Panama City. Send a line list, or a tank drawing with its nozzle schedule. Call (251) 625-4949 or contact us online.
FAQ: Plastic Lined Piping Accessories in Florida
Why do carbon steel sulfuric acid tanks at Florida acid plants need dip tubes and nozzle liners?
Carbon steel holds concentrated sulfuric acid only while a sulfate film protects it, and moving acid strips that film. A dip tube keeps incoming acid off the shell, and nozzle liners protect the steel where flow is highest.
Can a sight flow indicator go on wet-process phosphoric or fluorosilicic acid?
Not with a glass window, because fluoride attacks glass. Tell us the line, and we will say where a sight flow indicator fits and where flow should be confirmed another way.
Does molten sulfur at a Tampa Bay terminal run in lined pipe?
No. Molten sulfur runs in steam-jacketed carbon steel. Our fully jacketed pipe and fittings, clamp-on steam heaters and heat transfer compound go on the lined acid lines around it.
What accessories suit a Florida desalination or water plant's chemical feed?
A lined strainer in front of each metering pump and a sight flow indicator on each feed. Add dip tubes for filling day tanks below the surface and lined spectacle blinds for isolating a tank. Hypochlorite and acid feeds run in PTFE-lined spools.