The largest column has been installed at the construction site of the future polyethylene plant in Kazakhstan. This was reported by Qazaqyia.kz citing Sputnik Kazakhstan.
According to KazMunayGas, an ethylene fractionation column with a height of 101.8 meters and a diameter of 7.5 meters has been installed at the future polyethylene plant. Its total weight including the complete set exceeds 1,800 tonnes.
The company reported that the equipment was manufactured at the AtyrauNefteMash plant in Kazakhstan. The column is one of the main elements in the technological process of the pyrolysis unit and is designed to separate ethylene – the main feedstock required for polyethylene production.
"To perform a complex engineering operation, a crawler crane with a lifting capacity of 4,000 tonnes was assembled at the construction site. This is one of the largest cranes in the world in this category," the company said.
The installation work lasted about five hours, and the load was installed in several stages using the main crawler crane and an auxiliary 1,700-tonne crane. Initially, the column was raised in a horizontal position to a height of about three meters. After the necessary preparatory and control work, the equipment was lifted from horizontal to vertical, installed on the foundation and secured.
"In the future, the 4,000-tonne crawler crane will be used to install another large-sized piece of equipment of the pyrolysis unit – a cooling column weighing about 700 tonnes, more than 50 meters high and about 10 meters in diameter," KazMunayGas reported. This equipment was also manufactured at a Kazakh plant.
About 5,000 people and more than 500 units of special equipment are involved at the construction site. Work continues at the pyrolysis, polymerization and general plant facilities.