【Ten Years of Rapid Development in Chemical Equipment】From 1994 to 2023: 3,600-ton hydraulic lifting systems were used to lift a 2,100-ton propane-propylene separation tower

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Ten years of rapid development in chemical processing equipment – praise for China’s prosperity and strength. This is just a starting point; more participation will make things even more lively. HaiChuan becomes even better with your involvement; we welcome everyone to join in the forum discussions. Everyone should pay attention to safety and know how to handle emergencies. ********************************************* At 11:58 on December 12, 2021, at the site of the Yanchang Zhongran Taixing Light Hydrocarbon Deep Processing Project in Taixing City, Jiangsu Province, the “first tower,” namely the propane-propylene separation tower, was lifted into place in one go. The structure to be lifted this time has a diameter of 8.9 meters and a height of 129.6 meters, which is equivalent to the length of 3 Boeing 737-800 aircraft. Its total weight is around 2,100 tons; it is the tallest, heaviest, and largest piece of equipment in this project, and it ranks as the best of its kind in China. It’s not easy to lift such a large object as a whole. Given that the lifting height and weight in this case exceed the operational limits of the crawler crane, it constitutes a highly risky project; therefore, a lifting plan can be established only after expert evaluation. The project team of China State Construction Installation Petrochemical Engineering Company established a dedicated technical team to continuously optimize the construction plans. They conducted multiple precise calculations regarding the weight of the equipment, and simulated scenarios related to equipment placement and potential interferences to within centimeters. They carried out a series of complex tasks, including the maintenance and repair of hydraulic jacking towers as well as their assembly and testing. It took 32 days to complete all these tasks, enabling the equipment to be properly prepared for use and ensuring that the towers were ready for lifting. During the lifting process, the project utilized a state-of-the-art 3,600-ton hydraulic jacking system as the main lifting device. Unlike the traditional closed-girder crane technique used for lifts of 150 meters in height, this operation employed an open-girder structure with a total height of only 94 meters. The \"hydraulic synchronous jacking technology\" was used to lift the equipment, while a 750-ton crawler crane was used to move behind the equipment and assist in raising it from a horizontal position to an upright one. This approach enabled the successful lifting and placement of the equipment as a whole, not only solving the problem of limited space at the site but also being more cost-effective.