A MILP model based on flowrate database for detailed scheduling of a multi-product pipeline with multiple pump stations

Multi-product pipelines usually transport several products in batches to respective delivery stations. As for a multi-product pipeline with multiple pump stations, this paper develops a continuous-time mixed-integer linear programming (MILP) model based on flowrate database to optimize its detailed scheduling. In the proposed model, various unit pump cost and flowrate constraints, which strongly depend on pump operation schemes, are introduced for the economy and safety of solved scheduling plans. Moreover, this paper considers the actual field processing constraints which vary with batch interface migration and rarely considered in previous work. And a novel method of historical flowrate database preprocessing is presented to enhance solving efficiency. Finally, through comparing with three real-world cases solved by another two available models, the proposed one performs the best in scheduling optimization as well as substantial reduction of pump cost.