Three slurry bed reactors, each taller than a 20-storey building, needed to go into a petrochemical complex that was already built around them. The site was tight, hemmed in by existing structures, with almost no room to manoeuvre a machine capable of lifting loads this size — and the heaviest of the three reactors weighed 3,037 tonnes.

Between 3 and 8 January 2024, a single crawler crane installed all three, in an operation Zoomlion reported as setting two world records: heaviest single crane lift, and fastest lifting speed for an installation of this kind. Neither record was the point. The point was fitting a lift this size into a site that was never designed to accommodate one.

3,037 t
Heaviest single reactor
67.57 m
Reactor height
3,600 t
Crane rated capacity
6 days
Total installation window
Phase 1 — A record-scale reactor, not a record-scale problem by itself
The world's largest single-weight forging-and-welding hydrogenation reactor
The single heaviest of the three vessels had a net weight of 3,037 tonnes and stood 67.57 m tall — reported as the world's largest single-weight forging-and-welding hydrogenation reactor. On its own, a lift this size would already be exceptional. What made it a genuine engineering problem was where it had to go.
Phase 2 — A site that pre-dated the lift it now had to accommodate
Almost no room to manoeuvre
The reactors were installed inside Zhejiang Petroleum and Chemical Co.'s No.3 New Material Engineering Project — an active petrochemical complex, hemmed in by structures already standing. The load itself was bigger than anything previously attempted in a single pick; the site around it offered no extra space to compensate.
Phase 3 — Using the travel modes the machine was built with
Six travel modes, including a T-shaped configuration
The Zoomlion ZCC89000 crawler crane — rated at 3,600 tonnes with a lifting moment of 92,800 tonne-metres and a 3,160-tonne counterweight — offers six travel modes as a model capability, including a "T-shaped" configuration giving greater pickup range inside constrained areas, a travel configuration designed to extend working range where site access is restricted. Separately, Zoomlion and the construction team implemented eight significant upgrades for this particular operation, addressing height, weight, restricted lifting area, and long-distance load travel together rather than as separate problems.
Phase 4 — A six-day window with no room for error
Two months of schedule, won in six days
The crew had just under a week to install all three reactors. Completing them on schedule advanced the project's overall timeline by two months — reported by Zoomlion as generating significant economic benefit — with each vessel having to thread through a narrow operating area with minimal clearance on either side.

The crane could already lift the load. The harder question was reaching it — on a site never laid out to accommodate a machine this size.

The Zhejiang reactor lift stands as a reference case for a distinction that matters in erection engineering: rated capacity answers whether a crane can lift a load, but on a congested, pre-existing site, the harder problem is often getting the crane into position to try. Here, that meant selecting and sequencing the crane's travel configuration as carefully as the lift itself.

For further reading on erection engineering in industrial construction, see Erection Engineering in Industrial Construction

Related case studies: ITER Tokamak Assembly · Bertha TBM · Honghai Crane

Sources: Zoomlion ZCC89000 project report — reactor weight, crane capacity, travel modes and the January 2024 installation window. The record claims (heaviest single lift, fastest lifting speed) are as reported by Zoomlion rather than independently certified. Figures are reported as published.

Frequently Asked Questions

The single heaviest of three slurry bed reactors had a net weight of 3,037 tonnes and stood 67.57 m tall, reported as the world's largest single-weight forging-and-welding hydrogenation reactor. Between 3 and 8 January 2024, the crane used to install it broke two world records at once — for heaviest single crane lift and fastest lifting speed during installation of the three reactors.

The lift was performed by a Zoomlion ZCC89000 crawler crane, rated at 3,600 tonnes capacity with a lifting moment of 92,800 tonne-metres, carrying a counterweight of 3,160 tonnes on its own.

The site sat inside an existing petrochemical complex — Zhejiang Petroleum and Chemical Co.'s No.3 New Material Engineering Project — hemmed in by structures already in place, with almost no room to manoeuvre a machine of this size. The ZCC89000 offers six travel modes as a model capability, including a "T-shaped" configuration that gives greater pickup range inside constrained areas. Separately, Zoomlion and the construction team implemented eight significant upgrades for this particular operation.

The crew had a window of under a week to install all three reactors. Completing them on schedule advanced the overall project timeline by two months — reported by Zoomlion as generating significant economic benefit — while the lift itself required threading each vessel through a narrow operating area with minimal clearance.