Youth Shines in Golden City: 17 Years of Craftsmanship in Refinery Tower — Remembering Lan Zhou Petrochemical Refining Unit 1 Senior Technician Shi Yuping

In the towering distillation column of Lanzhou Petrochemical Refining Unit One, there is a woman who has been rooted in the continuous reforming unit for seventeen years. She diligently studies processes, overcomes difficult problems, competes on the field, and has won numerous awards. She safeguards safety through responsibility and demonstrates craftsmanship with perseverance. She is the only female senior technician in the reforming area—Shi Yuping.

Since graduating from university in 2009 and joining the company, Shi Yuping has always upheld the belief that “dedication must start with loving your job.” She has worked meticulously in various positions such as distillation, extraction, and reforming. She has won honors including the bronze medal in the 2025 National Industry Vocational Skills Competition for Catalytic Reforming Operators, the title of Advanced Individual for Women’s Contributions in 2023, and the “Four-Star Master-Apprentice” recognition at Lanzhou Petrochemical, writing a youthful chapter on an ordinary post.

With passion as her foundation, she trains her skills tirelessly to become a “living process.”

“Respect your job first; without love for your position, dedication is just empty talk.” This is Shi Yuping’s simple understanding of her profession. When she first took on her role in the reforming unit, facing complex pipelines and dense valves, she did not retreat but resolved to master the entire system.

She treats the equipment as her classroom and her post as her battlefield. She carries a notebook everywhere to record questions and insights; she works under the blazing sun, checking pipelines and confirming valves one by one, even drawing flow diagrams by hand; she repeatedly studies professional books like “Catalytic Reforming Processes and Engineering,” with pages worn and notes filled.

Day after day, her dedication and research have made her intimately familiar with on-site equipment, valve locations, and DCS parameters, earning her recognition as the “living process” among the team.

In her mind, operation is no small matter; parameter fluctuations are linked to the overall production. Over seventeen years, her position has never experienced a safety responsibility accident, building a solid barrier for stable plant operation.

In technical breakthroughs, she takes on heavy responsibilities and fights tough battles. In 2024, during the Toluene I project, she precisely identified key issues such as “low tower temperature and fluctuating reflux,” leading the team to optimize operations, achieving a 100% product qualification rate and completing the project ahead of schedule. The same year, she successfully solved a technical challenge involving the bromine index of isomer-grade xylenes at 3°C, increasing production by over 10,000 tons annually, helping her team earn the “Gansu Province Trustworthy Quality Team” award in 2023.

Her goal is continuous improvement, showcasing her talents on the competitive stage.

“Either don’t do it, or do it to the best.” This is Shi Yuping’s work motto. In 2025, she competed in the National Catalytic Reforming Operator Skills Competition. Facing 155 industry elites from across the country, with only two months of preparation, and a high-intensity contest covering multidisciplinary theory and simulation operations, she faced the challenge head-on and pushed herself to the limit.

During preparation, she studied over 15 hours daily, repeatedly reading thousands of pages of materials four or five times; she practiced thousands of questions online and offline, creating error review notebooks; she trained repeatedly on simulation systems for driving and accident handling, paying attention to details, practicing precision, and increasing speed. Ultimately, her excellent skills helped her stand out, earning a personal bronze medal and contributing to the team’s bronze medal, setting the best record in the company’s history of participation.

She finds joy in dedication, leading by example and mentoring her team.

When it comes to honors, Shi Yuping remains humble and calm: “I am just an ordinary woman worker; one’s effort yields one’s reward.” As a regional technical backbone, she insists on passing on skills and guiding others with patience, using the “Three Methods and Four Passes” apprenticeship approach.

When new employees join, she patiently explains processes and guides operations step by step; during technical drills, she demonstrates emergency handling to help everyone improve their skills. Over the years, she has mentored two technicians and five senior workers, earning the “Four-Star Gold Medal Master-Apprentice” at Lanzhou Petrochemical. She often says, “Being excellent alone isn’t enough; team progress is true excellence.”

Seventeen years of spring and autumn, seventeen years of craftsmanship. Shi Yuping nurtures her career with love, safeguards safety with responsibility, achieves self-improvement through dedication, and warms her team with devotion. The towering distillation tower witnesses her growth, and her unwavering craftsmanship carries her dreams. In the future, she will continue to work at the front line, craft her dreams with ingenuity, and write a brilliant chapter of women in the new era’s petrochemical industry.