South Korea petrochemical giant S-Oil ushered in giant equipment settled

Recently, South Korea Modern Engineering and Construction Company (Hyundai Engineering & Construction) announced that it has successfully installed the largest propylene fractionator in China at the construction site of S-Oil's Shaheen ethylene plant in Ulsan.

This fractionator is the key equipment in propylene production. It is 118 meters high, 8.5 meters in diameter, and weighs 2370 metric tons. It is the heaviest petrochemical equipment South Korea has ever manufactured. Its height is equivalent to a 50-story apartment building. Modern Engineering and Construction Company used a tower crane system to complete the installation of this huge structure in only 14 hours.

The Shaheen project is a petrochemical facility construction with a total investment of up to 9.3 trillion won (approximately US $6.8 billion) to enhance the growth momentum of S-Oil companies. The project is located in the Ausan National Industrial Complex in Ulsan, covering an area of 880000 square meters, equivalent to the size of 120 football fields.

As the prime contractor of the project, Hyundai Engineering & Construction joined hands with Hyundai Engineering and DL E & C to undertake the first phase of the ethylene facility construction. Among them, the world's largest steam cracking unit will be built, using thermal crude oil chemical conversion technology (TC2C) to directly convert crude oil into petrochemical raw materials.

In addition to the propylene fractionator, the cracking heater in the steam cracking unit is also attractive. The heater is 68 meters high and weighs 3200 metric tons. It is used to decompose raw materials such as naphtha and liquefied petroleum gas into ethylene and propylene through thermal decomposition.

In the shaheen project, modern engineering and construction company demonstrated its strong construction capability. The civil engineering phase of the project requires the pouring of 333749 cubic meters of concrete, which is equivalent to the transport capacity of 60000 concrete mixer trucks. At the same time, 98634 metric tons of steel will be used, which is enough to build 14 Eiffel Towers.

Hyundai Engineering and Construction Company is fully promoting the construction of the Shaheen project and is committed to realizing the world's first commercial operation of TC2C technology. At present, the overall progress of the project has exceeded 60%, and the installation of the steam cracker is expected to be completed in the first half of this year. After commissioning, the facility will produce 1.8 million tons of ethylene and other key petrochemical products annually, and start trial operation in the second half of this year.

The Shaheen project is expected to be completed in the first half of 2026, followed by the start of commercial production of ethylene, basic petrochemicals and polyethylene in the second half of the year. An official from Hyundai Engineering & Construction said: "Despite the scale of the project, with our rich global project experience and EPC expertise, we are always ahead of the plan. We are confident of completing the project by June next year, setting a new milestone for the South Korea petrochemical plant construction industry."