Heuristic optimization of the cleaning schedule of crude preheat trains

• A new optimization method for the cleaning schedule of crude preheat trains is discussed.
• The method is based on a heuristic algorithm using a greedy approach.
• The application of the method to examples from the literature showed competitive results.

This paper addresses the optimization of cleaning schedules of heat exchangers in crude preheat trains in petroleum refineries. The optimization approach is based on a heuristic scheme composed of a set of movements according to a greedy rationale. Each evaluation of the objective function demands the simulation of the behavior of the crude preheat train during the investigated time horizon. The optimization scheme can be employed using two alternatives: a basic and a recursive heuristic algorithm, where the recursive option can obtain better solutions, but demanding higher computational efforts. The proposed optimization approach does not present nonconvergence problems and does not demand any special attention related to control parameters tuning. The proposed approach was applied to three examples of cleaning schedule optimization problems from the literature. The solutions obtained present values of objective function better or very near to the best solution previously reported.