A heuristic approach for petrochemical plant layout considering steam pipeline length

This graph describes the steam pipeline configuration of the optimized plant layout. And the layout scheme is designed by using the heuristic approach which is proposed in this paper. The results in the case study show that the total pipeline length, including pipelines of material and steam, is the shortest in the case of the above graph. They also illustrate that the layout scheme in this graph, which considers material and steam flows simultaneously, as well as some environmental protection factors and safety issues, is the most economical and reasonable. Besides, the methodologies proposed can help to put forward optimized plant layout plan and reduce the pipeline length significantly.178