Pipeline 101
Refrigerated Buried Pipe

Pipeline engineers developed special refrigeration - techniques for pipeline sections that must be buried in permafrost zones, including some highway crossings and two places where caribou herds cross the pipeline route. These refrigerated pipeline sections are total approximately four miles of the 800-mile-long pipeline. The mainline pipe is insulated with polyurethane foam, covered with a resin-reinforced fiberglass jacket and buried in-between coolant lines. A refrigerated brine coolant is pumped from electrically powered refrigeration and circulation plants through six-inch-diameter coolant lines laid along both sides of the buried pipeline.