An Optimization Model for the Detailed Scheduling of Refined Product Pipelines Minimizing Energy Consumption

VANINA G. CAFARO; DIEGO C. CAFARO; CARLOS MÉNDEZ; JAIME CERDÁ

Rio de Janeiro

Conferencia; Rio Pipeline Conference & Exposition; 2015

Brazilian Petroleum, Gas and Biofuels Institute - IBP

Refined products pipelines usually connect refineries with distant distribution terminals along the line. The operation of a pipeline seems simple enough: pump fluid in one end and take it out on the other. While the principles dictating the behavior of fluids in pipelines are rather intuitive, the calculations involved can be fairly complex. Although a fluid would seem to be slippery by its nature, friction still occurs. Commonly, friction loss is the major term requiring pump stations to keep the flow moving, and is strongly dependent on the fluid flow rate. Some recent studies have been carried out solving the optimal scheduling of multiproduct pipelines, but none of them has been focused on thoroughly considering the head loss due to friction along the pipeline. This work introduces a novel continuous-time mixed integer non linear programming (MINLP) formulation to find the detailed schedule that minimizes the total operating cost by rigorously calculating power consumption at every pipeline segment. Real-world case studies are successfully solved using GAMS-DICOPT algorithm, which proves to be a useful tool for solving large-scale, nonlinearoptimization models. Important reductions in the operation costs are achieved by keeping a more stable flow over the planning horizon.