Nitrogen Transport in a Complex Industrial Environment

Pexgol enabled a safe and efficient installation across a highly constrained refinery layout.

Case Study Nº

190 Customer

YPF

Argentina

2025

Working Conditions

Temperature: 20°C | Pressure: 8 kg/cm² | Fluid: Gaseous nitrogen

Pexgol Pipes

Pexgol 110 mm (4”), Class 15

Application

Nitrogen

Lenght

2.2 km

The Challenge

YPF, Argentina’s leading energy company with integrated operations in exploration, production, reﬁning, and commercialization of hydrocarbons, required the development of a new pipeline to transport nitrogen from Petroquímica Cuyo to its industrial operations at the Luján de Cuyo Reﬁnery in Mendoza, Argentina.

The project demanded a reliable solution capable of operating with gaseous nitrogen at 20°C and 8 kg/cm² within a highly demanding industrial environment.

The main challenge was the pipeline routing. The line needed to cross the reﬁnery from west to east, a complex task due to numerous existing interferences and strict safety protocols inherent to an active industrial facility.

Additionally, the total length of the project—2.2 km—required an efﬁcient execution strategy to minimize intervention times and ensure a safe installation without disrupting ongoing reﬁnery operations.

The Solution

For this project, Pexgol 110 mm Class 15 was selected as the optimal piping solution. Key advantages included fast installation, high chemical and corrosion resistance, long service life, and material ﬂexibility.

The lightweight nature of the pipe, combined with the ability to supply it in long continuous coils, signiﬁcantly reduced the number of joints required on site. This allowed the pipeline to be adapted efﬁciently to the reﬁnery’s complex layout, optimizing maneuverability and minimizing interference during installation.

The system incorporated electrofusion couplers, loose ﬂanges, and ﬂared ends / stub ends, ensuring a reliable and secure connection throughout the pipeline.

Thanks to careful planning and the operational advantages of the Pexgol system, the full 2.2 km pipeline was installed in just 10 days.

As a ﬁnal stage, a pneumatic integrity test at 3.5 kg/cm² was successfully performed, ensuring complete tightness of the system prior to commissioning.

The result was a safe, efﬁcient, and reliable solution for nitrogen transport within one of Argentina’s main reﬁneries, once again demonstrating Pexgol’s capability to perform in applications where installation speed, ﬂexibility, and operational safety are critical.