An automatic detailed scheduling method of refined products pipeline

Refined products pipeline system is one of the most economic and effective transportation modes. Many scholars have conducted some research on the oil batch scheduling optimization of refined products pipeline. However, solving the model of a large refined products pipeline scheduling problem usually costs a long time. It also does not involve in automatic scheduling plan developing. In this paper, considering the batch tracking, flow rate constraints, hydraulic constraints and taking the minimum volume deviation between demand volume of each station and the actual unloading volume as the objective function, a mixed integer nonlinear programming (MINLP) model has been established for a large single-source refined products pipeline with multiple output stations. A heuristic algorithm is used to solve this model. The real-world pipeline from Mao Ming to Da Li, part of the Southwest China pipeline network, is taken as the study case. A long term scheduling model for this pipeline is established and solved in this paper. A complete detailed scheduling plan in the whole time horizon is given automatically. The average computing time of the model is 31.70s and the results are in accordance with the process and situation in field. The research achievement is significant and helpful to develop scheduling plan for a large single-source pipeline with multiple output stations.