Using a crane with the biggest lifting capacity available in Singapore, the tallest column in the Shell Eastern Petrochemicals Complex (SEPC) project's entire infrastructure was safely and successfully lifted into place at the end of July.
Standing at 107 metres high, the Propylene Fractionation Column is the equivalent of a 30-storey building and weighs 1,000 tonnes - or close to the weight of four empty Airbus A380s.
A specially designed Platform Twin Ring Containerised crane was used to achieve the lift. The only one of its kind in Singapore, the crane has a lifting capacity of 2,000 tonnes.
The Propylene Fractionation Column was erected at the site of SEPC's ethylene cracker complex on Pulau Bukom. Its installation marks another significant milestone in the project's construction, which is on track for completion of facilities on time for start up by 2009/2010.
The SEPC will include a new world-scale 800,000 tonnes per annum ethylene cracker on Pulau Bukom and a 750,000 tonnes per annum Mono-Ethylene Glycol (MEG) plant on Jurong Island.