Conventionally, cast iron pipes and plastic pipes are used for the transportation of sulfuric acidin production lines. The lifetime of cast iron pipes depends on their thickness, making piping excessively heavy and bulky, which results in shorter units and thus in greater numbers of linking flanges. This in turn increases the risk for leakage due to corrosion, brittle cracking and other major damage. Plastic and fluoroplastic piping, while fairly resistant to corrosion, are not suitable substitutions as they are unable to resist the pressures generated during starting up and shutting down of acid pumps and suffer from temperature swings.
