Industry: Agriculture / Biofuels / Ethanol Production | Service: Industrial Painting / Sandblasting & Coating | Contractor: TMI Coatings, LLC (AMPP QP 1 & QP 2 Certified)
Challenge
An ethanol production facility in North Central Iowa contracted TMI Coatings to repaint corroded piping and structural supports across its processing infrastructure. This scope encompassed nearly one mile of pipe and approximately 100 vertical and cross supports. Years of exposure to the plant’s corrosive chemical environment and weather had degraded the existing coating system. The critical constraint was schedule: the most corrosion-vulnerable piping ran adjacent to cooling towers, and that portion of the work had to be completed during a planned plant shutdown when the towers were down and no longer producing mist that would contaminate freshly applied coatings.
Solution
TMI Coatings, LLC (TMI) mobilized in late March to begin work ahead of the shutdown window, executing the scope in two phases: non-critical piping and supports during normal operations, followed by the cooling tower-adjacent piping during the scheduled outage.
All TMI personnel completed facility-specific contractor safety orientation before beginning work. TMI high-pressure washed all components, then mechanically abraded corroded steel sections to remove surface rust and establish an anchor profile for coating adhesion. Adjacent equipment and components not being painted were poly-covered for protection.
TMI applied a two-coat system: a full coat of rust-inhibiting epoxy primer in owner-designated colors, followed by a urethane topcoat selected for its chemical resistance and UV stability, critical performance requirements for exterior steel in an ethanol processing environment exposed to chemical vapors, process splash, and sustained weather cycling.
Result
TMI completed the project safely with the critical shutdown portion delivered on schedule, minimizing additional downtime for the owner. The facility’s piping and structural steel now carry a corrosion-resistant, UV-stable coating system engineered for the chemical and environmental demands of ethanol production. Based on TMI’s performance, the owner immediately contracted TMI to paint ground storage tanks at the same facility, extending a single project into an ongoing maintenance relationship.
Why TMI Coatings
TMI Coatings is an AMPP QP 1 and QP 2 certified industrial painting contractor with 40 years of experience in biofuels, ethanol production, chemical processing, and agricultural infrastructure. Large-scale pipe and structural steel painting, including shutdown-scheduled work coordinated around operating plant constraints, is one of TMI’s core service lines, refined across ethanol plants, refineries, manufacturing facilities, and municipal infrastructure nationwide. TMI hires, trains, and deploys its own field crews with NACE CIP Level 3 certified inspection personnel for in-house quality assurance.