【Ten Years of Rapid Development in Chemical Equipment】Phased Installation of the Granulation Tower in a 200,000 tons/year Bisphenol A Plant from 1994 to 2021

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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 from everyone will make things even more lively. HaiChuan becomes even better with your involvement; we welcome everyone to join in the forum discussions. Be careful of fire hazards due to the high temperatures in July. ********************************************* On April 13th, as the 800T crawler crane slowly lifted the top control room into place, the installation of the main structure of the biphenol A plant’s granulation tower was completed. The installation of the granulation tower for the bisphenol A plant is the critical path in the construction of the company’s 200,000 tons per year bisphenol A project. As the tallest and most multi-story building in the entire plant, the 14-story concrete structure of the granulation tower framework was completed on January 8, 2022. Due to its maximum diameter of 14 meters, the granulation tower equipment must be manufactured and assembled in sections on-site; together with other minor construction tasks, the total construction time requires 6 months. Since the operation of the bisphenol A plant began in March 2021, the frame concrete structure was changed from a design of 11 floors to 14 floors; coupled with various factors that arose during construction, by early October 2021 the plant had only completed the pouring of the 7th floor. Based on the construction progress for each floor, the bisphenol A project team estimated that the completion of the granulation tower structure would take place in January 2022. The construction of the secondary structure after the roof is completed will also affect the installation of the granulation tower equipment; the start date is expected to be early March 2022, and the installation timeline will no longer allow for meeting the delivery target set for July 30th. With the support of the company’s leadership, and following thorough research and extensive discussions, and with the cooperation of relevant parties such as the EPC contractor Saiding, the supervision team from Shanghai, the construction companies Huayi Construction and Sinochem Sixth Construction, the granulation tower equipment supplier Oikawa, and the heavy lifting company Sinopec Qiyun, the project team responsible for the bisphenol A facility officially proposed and implemented a plan for carrying out construction work on the granulation tower in a staggered manner. In mid-December 2021, when the civil construction of the granulation tower had reached the 10th floor, a steel structure was installed to isolate the inner cavity, thereby allowing the civil construction work at the upper part to proceed independently from the installation work of the lower part of the granulation tower, enabling simultaneous construction. The installation work for the granulation equipment began in late December, four months earlier than the originally planned start date. And in March 2022, the pre-assembly of the barrel, lower expansion section, and lower cone of the granulation equipment was completed ； At the beginning of April, the assembly work for the expanded upper section of the granulation tower and the floor in the operation room was completed. On April 11, the expanded section at the top of the granulation tower was hoisted into place. On April 13, 2022, the operating room at the top of the granulation tower was hoisted into place.