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Plymouth Tube Co. delivers to U.S. Dept. of Energy

Plymouth delivers heat exchangers to U.S. Department of EnergyPlymouth Tube Co., Warrenville, Ill., is preparing to ship the final orders of the SEA-CURE® heat exchanger tubing to the Department of Energy (DOE). The tubing is being used to retube 33 heat exchanger units at the DOE's Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR). Tubing orders were placed through DynMcDermott and ASRC, the DOE's Management and Operating Contractors, beginning in 2002.

The SPR is stored at four sites along the Gulf of Mexico in a series of artificial caverns within salt domes below the surface. As the crude is stored at high temperature, the heat exchangers are used to cool the crude before pumping into the pipeline.

Originally installed with carbon tubing during the early 1970s, the heat exchangers began to corrode and leak as a result of a combination of high chlorides and high microbiological activity in the water used to cool the crude.