An MILP approach for detailed scheduling of oil depots along a multi-product pipeline

Abstract Oil depots along products pipelines are important components of the pipeline transportation system and down-stream markets. The operating costs of oil depots account for a large proportion of the total system’s operating costs. Meanwhile, oil depots and pipelines form an entire system, and each operation in a single oil depot may have influence on others. It is a tough job to make a scheduling plan when considering the factors of delivering contaminated oil and batches migration. So far, studies simultaneously considering operating constraints and contaminated oil issues are rare. Aiming at making a scheduling plan with the lowest operating costs, the paper establishes a mixed-integer linear programming model, considering a sequence of operations, such as delivery, export, blending, fractionating and exchanging operations, and batch property differences of the same oil as well as influence of batch migration on contaminated volume. Moreover, the paper verifies the linear relationship between oil concentration and blending capability by mathematical deduction. Finally, the model is successfully applied to one of the product pipelines in China and proved to be practical