【Ten Years of Rapid Development in Chemical Processing Equipment】From 1994 to 2022: 5,000-ton hydraulic lifting was used for the one-time overall installation; a 1,900-ton product separation tower was put in place!
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Ten years of rapid development in chemical processing equipment – praise for the prosperous and strong China. This is just a starting point; more participation from everyone 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. ********************************************* On January 23, 2022, the product separation tower for the propane dehydrogenation unit in the first phase of Jiangsu Ruiheng’s carbon three industry project was installed in one go, thanks to the efforts of China State Construction Installation Petrochemical Engineering Company. This is another \"thousand-ton, 100-meter-high\" separation tower lifted by the petrochemical engineering company, following the installation of the product separation tower for the Zhongran project in recent months. It sets a new record as the tallest structure in the Lianyungang petrochemical industry complex, adding yet another landmark to this beautiful coastal city. As the core equipment of the project, the product separation tower of the 600,000 tons per year propane dehydrogenation unit, which is being lifted this time, is 126.8 meters tall and has a lifting weight of 1,900 tons. It is the tallest and heaviest single piece of equipment in the project, and it will be used to separate propane from propylene, producing propylene of polymer-grade purity of at least 99.6 mol%.
The overall lifting of this \"giant\" constitutes a highly hazardous project, and the lifting plan must be approved by experts before it can be carried out. To enable the separation tower to be erected successfully, the project team from the petrochemical engineering company conducted multiple precise calculations of the equipment’s weight and carried out simulations regarding the placement of the equipment and the location of the tower’s installation. They completed a series of preparatory tasks, including the assembly and testing of the hydraulic lifting device as well as the assembly and testing of the overhead cranes, thus laying the foundation for lifting the product separation tower. Ultimately, it took 49 days to complete the installation of all components on the tower; at the same time, the pipelines and electrical/electronic systems connected to the tower were also installed, ensuring that the tower was operational once it was erected.
The lifting is carried out using a holistic lifting approach: a 5,000-ton hydraulic lifting system is used to lift the upper part of the equipment, while an 800-ton crawler crane serves as a helper to lift it, gradually transitioning the equipment from a horizontal position to an upright one. Thanks to the use of the \"high-pole lifting method\", the angle can be adjusted flexibly, which facilitates the accurate and smooth positioning of the equipment. At the same time, sliding rails are installed at the bottom of the 5,000-ton hydraulic lifting system, which facilitates moving the tower away from the lifting position after the equipment has been hoisted into place. The tower can be disassembled section by section from bottom to top, like dominoes, offering high practicality, operability, and safety, as well as good lifting stability and low costs.
As the project is located along the coast and features a marine alluvial plain landscape, the soil is soft with a high water content, belonging to fluid-plastic silty soil. This time, the area where the heavy lifting machinery was used covered 7,320 square meters, which is about the size of a football field. To ensure that the large towers could stand firmly in place, the project team used a \"soil replacement method\" to transform the working area before the lifting process began.
A foundation trench 2.9 meters deep was dug, and approximately 300 cubic meters of silt and native soil were removed. Large boulders, crushed stones, and sand-gravel mixtures were filled in layer by layer, from bottom to top, in a \"layered cake\" pattern, ensuring that the compaction degree of each layer reached 0.94. The bearing capacity of the foundation in the areas where vehicles move around was 22.5 t/m2, while the bearing capacity at the location where cranes operate was 13.01 t/m2 – values sufficient to meet the requirements for constructing large towers in this area.
Due to the extremely limited space at the project site and the high level of coordination required for construction, 6 anchor points need to be installed for this lifting operation; 5 of these are located outside this installation unit, with the farthest anchor point being up to 153 meters away from the tower. The guy wires have to pass through surrounding installations as well as steel structure ducts. To address this, the project team carried out thorough planning and held numerous discussions to coordinate the placement of various elements in the area. During the installation of the anchor points and guy wires, efforts were made to protect existing structures such as underground pipes and cables, safety measures and warning signs were put in place, and dedicated personnel were assigned to oversee the process, ensuring a safe and smooth lifting operation. Every detail reflects a commitment to safe production.