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Watch this: Huge reactor lift at new Alberta petrochemical plant

Freezing temperatures and a wallop of snow late last week didn’t stop crews with Inter Pipeline and Mammoet from completing a major construction task on the Heartland Petrochemical Complex.
Reactor
The polypropylene reactor, connected to the Mammoet ring crane prior to the lift on March 7, 2019.

Freezing temperatures and a wallop of snow late last week didn’t stop crews with Inter Pipeline and Mammoet from completing a major construction task on the Heartland Petrochemical Complex.

A 430-foot, 1,600-tonne Mammoet PTC35DS ring crane was used to lift a 48.5-metre, 725-tonne polypropylene reactor into place at the facility near Fort Saskatchewan on Mar. 7, 2019, the day after it was delivered to the site.

The reactor will convert propylene sourced from Alberta propane into polypropylene resin, which will then be kneaded into polypropylene pellets.

These pellets are used to manufacture a wide range of goods including Canadian currency, medical products, automotive parts, food storage containers, and apparel.

The reactor was fabricated at Cessco Fabrication in Edmonton over approximately 15 months.

It’s one of three oversized vessels that have been delivered to the Heartland Petrochemical Complex since the start of the year. It was the second heaviest road move in Alberta history.

The heaviest road move was also a vessel that traveled from Edmonton to the site, a propylene-propane splitter that weighs over 800 tonnes and will be over 97 metres high when erected using the same crane later this spring.

Construction of the $3.5-billion facility, which has $200 million in future royalty credits from the Alberta government, is expected to be complete in late 2021.

Video courtesy of Inter Pipeline Ltd.

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