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Refinery & Petrochemical Piping Systems
Trenchless Pipe Rehabilitation for Refinery and Petrochemical Piping NetworksA refinery or petrochemical plant runs several distinct piping networks, and each one fails differently. Crude and vacuum unit lines carry high-temperature hydrocarbons prone to naphthenic acid corrosion and sulfidation. Cooling water and process water systems run continuously and corrode from the inside out, often with no visible warning. Wastewater and interceptor lines carry gravity flow contaminated with process byproducts. Fire main and utility systems stay pressurized around the clock and cannot go down for long. Treating these as one problem instead of four is where a lot of rehabilitation projects go wrong. Engineers sometimes specify CIPP gravity lining for a line that actually carries pressure, usually because a spec got copied from an earlier project without checking it against the line’s actual service. CIPP is not manufactured for pressure applications. Liners installed under an incorrect spec ten to fifteen years ago are now reaching the point where they show stress fractures and leaks, a pattern surfacing across the industry as those installations age. Refinery turnarounds are usually planned twelve to eighteen months out. A rehabilitation contractor who isn’t already in the facility’s qualification system by the time planning starts is rarely on the list by the time bids go out.
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Trenchless Rehabilitation for Refinery and Petrochemical Piping
Refinery piping runs both gravity and pressure service, and it runs it under some of the harshest chemical exposure in industry. We match the method to the line. Full technical detail on each method is further down the page.
CIPP Trenchless LiningCured-in-place pipe rehabilitates gravity lines, sewer, and drainage infrastructure inside the refinery footprint from the inside, with no excavation near active units. |
Primus Pressure Pipe LiningPressure pipe lining for process and transfer lines that cannot use CIPP. Hill Services is the only certified Primus installer for industrial oil and gas in the U.S. |
Plural Hot-Heated Epoxy CoatingSpray-applied epoxy protects tanks, vessels, and structures against H2S and caustic exposure, formulated to the specific chemistry of the unit. |
Video Inspection and AssessmentEvery project starts with an inspection of the line’s real condition, so the method matches what is actually happening underground. |
Built for the Refinery Floor
These are the systems inside a refinery or petrochemical plant where a contractor failure is expensive, visible, and often regulated.
Crude & Vacuum UnitsProcess piping around units where a shutdown is measured in dollars per minute, not per day. Naphthenic acid and sulfidation corrosion are common failure modes in this piping, and both accelerate at the operating temperatures crude and vacuum units run. |
Tank Farms & StorageCorrosion protection and structural rehabilitation for storage and containment systems, including secondary containment structures subject to regulatory inspection. Coating failures here tend to surface as visible leaks well before the underlying structure is fully compromised. |
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Cooling & Process Water SystemsGravity and pressure lines that keep a unit running at temperature, rehabilitated without a shutdown. These systems corrode from the inside and often go unnoticed until a failure forces the issue, since the water side of the line is rarely inspected directly. |
Turnaround Shutdown SupportScheduled maintenance windows where every trade works a sequential clock, and a delay in one trade holds up every trade behind it. Getting into a facility’s qualification system twelve to eighteen months before the shutdown date is what makes participation possible at all. |
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Wastewater & InterceptorsGravity sewer and interceptor rehabilitation for refinery wastewater systems under regulatory scrutiny, including discharge permit compliance considerations. These lines carry process byproducts that ordinary liners are not built to withstand. |
Fire Main & Utility LinesPressure pipe rehabilitation for life-safety and utility systems that cannot be taken out of service for long, inspected and returned to service on a compressed timeline. A fire main failure is a life-safety issue, not only an operations one. |
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Across the Ship Channel and Beyond
Hill Services works refineries and petrochemical facilities throughout the greater Houston industrial corridor.
Refineries That Cannot Afford Downtime
Choose Hill Services
You Know How We Work.
Let’s Talk About Your Line.
If this is enough to know Hill Services understands refinery and petrochemical piping, the next step is a conversation. Contact an expert or request a project estimate below. Prefer more detail first? The technical breakdown of CIPP, Primus, and epoxy, along with the standards and equipment behind each one, continues below.
How We Match the Method to the Line
What follows covers the three trenchless methods Hill Services installs in refineries and petrochemical plants, in more depth than most visitors need. Every project starts with a video inspection to document the line’s actual condition: gravity or pressure, corrosion pattern, material already lost. That inspection is what determines which method below is the right one, not a standard package applied to every job. Keep scrolling for the technical detail, or reach out now if you already have what you need.
Cured-in-Place Pipe (CIPP) Lining for Refinery Gravity Systems
Cured-in-place pipe rehabilitates gravity-fed lines, storm drains, sanitary sewer, and process wastewater collection systems, from the inside. A resin-saturated liner is inserted into the existing pipe using air inversion, the modern standard over water inversion, then cured in place with heat applied through burners. The result is a new structural pipe formed inside the old one, installed without excavating near an active unit.
The Masterliner CIPP products used on Hill Services projects meet ASTM F1216 and F1743, the governing standards for cured-in-place pipe design and installation. Ed Ward, our lead technician, is Masterliner-certified across the full four-inch to ninety-six-inch diameter range and has personally installed more than 500,000 linear feet.
CIPP is not manufactured for pressure service. A liner installed on a pressurized line under an incorrect spec does not usually fail on day one. It fails years later, and by then the paper trail on why is often gone.
4″–96″ Diameter range installed |
500,000+ ft Installed by our lead technician |
ASTM F1216 / F1743 Governing standards met |
Primus Pressure Pipe Lining for Refinery and Petrochemical Process Lines
Primus is a flexible pressure pipe system built around a fabric of aramid fibers, the same fiber family as Kevlar, layered between an inner and outer wall of polyethylene or thermoplastic polyurethane. That fabric layer is what lets the liner carry the full operating pressure on its own once installed, rather than depending on adhesion to the host pipe. Manufacturer testing rates the system for a minimum fifty-year service life.
Installation needs only two access pits, one at each end of the section being rehabilitated, not a continuous trench. The old pipe is inspected by camera and mechanically cleaned, then the liner, delivered folded flat, is winched through using a pulling head rated to more than 22,000 pounds of force. Once in place, it is pressurized with air to round out into its final shape, connectors are pressed on at each end, and the section is pressure tested before it goes back into service.
Individual sections can run up to 8,200 feet in a single continuous pull, which cuts down the number of connection points on a long pipeline run. Primus is certified for drinking water and gas service and is used across water, wastewater, oil, and gas pipelines, rated for operating pressure above 1,000 PSI depending on pipe size. Hill Services is the only contractor certified to install it for industrial oil and gas applications in the United States. Our longest single pull to date is 4,600 feet, in Texas.
8,200 ft Max. single continuous pull |
50-year Rated minimum service life |
1,000+ PSI Rated operating pressure |
Plural Hot-Heated Epoxy Coating for Tanks, Vessels, and Structures
Plural hot-heated epoxy is a 100 percent solids coating system, spray-applied from a heated trailer that can reach up to 300 feet of hose run. It applies directly to concrete without sandblasting, and it can go on wet surfaces, which matters inside a refinery where taking a structure fully dry before a shutdown window closes is not always realistic.
The formulation is matched to the exposure rather than sold as one universal product. Current systems handle a pH range of roughly 2 to 13, which covers most of the acid and caustic exposure found in refinery and petrochemical process areas, and Hill Services’ applications have tested to a 2,500 psi pull test.
Spray-applied epoxy accounts for an estimated 15 to 25 percent of manhole and structure rehabilitation work nationally by volume, and that share climbs toward half of all specifications in severe H2S corrosion environments, exactly the condition common in refinery wastewater and process structures.
Ed Ward, who leads this work at Hill Services, calls it the Cadillac of the industry. It costs more to install than a cementitious coating. It also holds up longer in the conditions a refinery actually produces.
pH 2–13 Chemical resistance range |
2,500 psi Pull test rating |
300 ft Spray reach from trailer |
Hill Services also provides plumbing, HVACR, and industrial and environmental services for facilities like this one.
Planning Work at a Houston Refinery?
Start With the Right Conversation.
Talk to a NACE-certified inspector or a trenchless specialist about your unit before you commit to a formal estimate. We will tell you straight whether we are the right fit for the line, the chemistry, and the schedule.