Winner

Gas tower

Equipment User: Sarens

Lifting Equipment Used: Sarens Sartower

Location: Equatorial Guinea, Africa

The winning lifting project in TopLift 2006 was the installation of a CO₂ absorber vessel at the EG LNG project under construction in Bioko, Equatorial Guinea, Africa. To install the 660 tonne, 37 m long and 5.5 m diameter vessel Sarens used its Sartower lift system, which offers a lifting capacity of up to 1,000 tonnes per tower, depending on the height and type of guying used. In this case a configuration of two towers, each 44 m high, was installed either side of the foundation of the absorber vessel. The Sartower configuration for this lift required limited guying, using two relatively short lattice boom sections in longitudinal direction and stabilising one tower transversely, enabling the complete Sartower set-up to fit well in the relatively small location.

Lifting trunnions either side of the vessel were rigged to a free swivelling lifting beam. That beam was attached to a cross girder beam supported by the hydro-mechanical push-up system fitted in both tower sections. The push-up motion was activated and controlled from ground level. In this way, and with the support of a tailing crawler crane, the CO₂ absorber vessel was installed.