I recently had a customer ask me if he could pour chemicals down a relined drain. He knew that Evolinewas able to handle the heat up to 115 degrees Celsius, but he was unsure about chemical resistance. His reason for this query was for the remediation of fats and grease that builds up in one of the drain lines from a kitchen that he maintains.

Someone had asked him whether chemicals and heat would harm the liner, and I advised him that the method he used to install the liner was suitable to combat the effects of the chemicals and heat demand. This is because the sensitive liner coating was on the outside of the liner because of the Pull-In Place method used.

The problem was resolved because the actual resined-out liner, the part that matters, was on the inside. This is the surface that comes into contact with any chemicals and heat, which will not cause damage to the liner. The customer had used the Evoline slow resin hardener with the Evoline base. As the chemical resistance for the Evoline epoxy (as a rule of thumb) shows no loss of physical properties when exposed to this chemical, he should be good to go.

The only reason I point this out is to show that different chemicals and heat affect liner coatings differently, with some issues showing up immediately. While these are usually cosmetic, more prolonged exposure to them may destroy them completely.

But what about industrial plants who use various chemicals every day? Many plants have wastewater that is very different from the “normal” waste found in a typical sewer system. For example, a beer bottling operation will have different sewer effluents than a battery manufacturer. Some effluent will likely be on the high pH side while other effluents tend to be more acidic. Most likely, the effluents are not concentrated enough to do damage, but you need to investigate.

So, you may ask the question “what if somebody poured unsuitable chemicals down the drain continuously at full strength?” My response would be “if someone is dumping 100% acetone down a sewer drain continuously, there will be more critical issues than what type of lining the drain pipe has in it.”

Often you will see intermittent dumping of a chemical, but continuously dumping pure acetone down a drain isn’t typical. When handling a particularly aggressive chemical in its 100% pure concentrated form, it is usually treated by a pipe with a coating that is designed for that purpose. If you get called to line one of these pipes, you may want to guide the client back to the pipe solution that was originally used to fit that purpose.

A good rule of thumb for Evoline epoxy resins is that they typically have a chemical resistance to effluent that is between 1 and 11 on a pH scale. Additionally, any chemicals with petroleum-based solvents may create an issue for you.

While there are many options to deal with chemical and heat within a relined pipe, the one outlined above is a simple, tried and proven method that achieves excellent results.

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