Optimal Planning for Transportation of Petroleum Products via Pipe-line According to the Demand Time Window for Minimizing Costs

The use of pipelines is the most effective and safest method of transporting large-scale petroleum products from the refinery to the storage and distribution centers. Efficient and optimal planning in multi-product pipelines is important from economic, social, and strategic points of view. In this paper, a Mixed Integer Linear Programming (MILP) model with a continuous time framework is presented to determine not only the batches' optimal injection and volume, but also their sequence and timing. The goal is to minimize the costs of pumping, storage, mixing, and delayed demands regarding all operational constraints in the problem. This paper investigates the planning of transportation of petroleum products via a one-direction multi-product pipeline with an injection source at the origin and several distribution centers along the way. The supposition of this problem regards a multi-period planning horizon with a time window for the total demands of the distribution centers, which must be provided until the end of the program horizon. The case study is a pipeline with a length of 457 km that delivers 6 petroleum products to 4 distribution centers. Two examples of the mentioned case study are presented to demonstrate the advantages of using the Mixed Integer Linear Programming model. The evaluation and validation of the plan is confirmed by comparing it with the operational plan realized in Iran Oil Pipelines and Telecommunications Company. The results imply a significant improvement in pipeline scheduling and cost reduction by applying the mathematical model.