Precision Engineering: How the 93-Meter Xylene Tower Was Successfully Hoisted
1,250-ton distillation column — 93 meters tall and 8.4 meters at its broadest diameter — has completed its fourth and final segmental lift at the Urumqi Petrochemical 1.5-million-ton-per-year aromatics expansion project.
Alaric Calloway·updated September 08, 2026
According to Xinjiang Net, the conclusion of the hoisting sequence marks a structural milestone in one of the facility's heaviest equipment installations.
Engineering Constraint Drives the Method
Overland transport across Xinjiang cannot accommodate a fully assembled tower of this scale. The project team instead pre-fabricated the column in four sections at an on-site heavy-equipment workshop, transported each segment to the foundation, and welded them vertically in sequence. The finished unit holds 125 internal trays, reaches 78 millimeters in maximum wall thickness, and stands roughly the height of a 30-story building. As Zhang Aiguo, head of the aromatics PMT division, framed the precision demand: aligning the 64-millimeter base skirt bolts with 60 foundation anchor holes requires zero measurable deviation.
Tandem Lift Mechanics
The operation paired a 1,600-ton crawler crane as the primary hoist with a 500-ton crawler crane managing the tail end, executing what the project calls a "single main machine lift delivery." On July 23, the 352-ton, 25-meter bottom segment arrived at the foundation and was set in place the following day. The third segment was raised on August 5. At the lift's peak, the tail lift lug reached 11 meters off the ground — roughly four stories — where each additional centimeter upward tested coordination between the two operators. Per Zhang, every segment has been positioned in a single lift attempt, with no re-cycles required.
Project Trajectory
The overall expansion stands at 44.58% completion, with groundwork finishing, steel structure erection, equipment installation, and process piping prefabrication now running in parallel. The 35-kilovolt substation serving the aromatics unit — the electrical hub for power intake, conversion, and distribution across the facility — was recently topped out. Scheduled handover is June 30, 2027. Upon commissioning, the project is expected to scale para-xylene and petroleum benzene output and anchor a provincial industrial cluster the source places at over one trillion yuan, integrating refining, chemical, and textile production.