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To help mitigate both hot and cold conditions on two steel and ductile pipe compression systems at a liquefied natural gas (LNG) facility, the John W. Egan Co. used i n s u lat i ve co at i n g s i n va r y i n g thicknesses. Th e t h i c k n e s s e s we re different: three coats to help with condensation control on the cold pipes and one coat to create a safe-touch system on the hot pipes. And poly was needed to protect from overspray. Feature 44 SEPTEMBER 2015 COATINGSPROMAG.COM PHOTOS COURTESY TNEMEC COMPANY INC. BY STEPHANIE MARIE CHIZIK It's Hot and It's Cold: Insulation Coating for Pipelines I magine a project where you have to coat in an enclosed space and out in the elements, on hot pipes and icy ones, using brushes and sprayers, and working with a new (to them) insulative coating material. For the three-person coatings crew with John W. Egan Co., Inc., that's exactly what they were tasked to do on this pipeline project. Working with so many variables, you'd hope that the coatings crew would have some know-how. Luckily for the client, which wishes to remain unnamed, and one of their lique- fed natural gas (LNG) facilities, this coatings crew did. Boiling Point John W. Egan Co., which worked with the client on several other projects in the past, was called in to assist with a pilot program using an insulative coating, according to Project Manager Robert "Junior" Belisle. Michael Woessner, coatings consultant for the Righter Group, an independent representative and distributor of Tnemec products, had also worked with the client in the past and wanted to share the Tnemec's Series 971 Aerolon coating as a new approach. Woessner said that it could help with condensation control and safe-touch compliance, and the client knew a great place where it could go: Te coatings crew would use it on some of the facility's pipes and compressor units in the boil-of room. Essentially, the LNG liquid in storage gives of a cold vapor called boil-of, which is piped to compressors. Te piping before the compressors is very cold but becomes very hot when heated by the compression process. Te compressors pump this boil-of into the local distribution system for use by customers. It's those varying temperatures that were the root of the variables: Te heated pipes were too hot to touch, and the cooling pipes had condensation and formed ice. Terefore, the coating system chosen needed to be able to insulate the 4- to 12-inch (10.2– 30.5 cm) pipes for both cold and hot temperatures. PIPELINE STEEL ACRYLIC