A heuristic batch sequencing for multiproduct pipelines

Multiproduct pipelines are designed to transport refined petroleum products from major sources to distribution centers. Moreover, the existence of large, complex and world wide spread businesses leads to a complex system in which distribution can be seen as one of the key areas that needs to be efficiently and effectively managed. The system reported in this paper was composed of an oil refinery, a multiproduct pipeline connected to a storage tank farm that received large amounts of oil derivatives. In this work, a heuristic method was proposed for scheduling a real life system. The output was an operational program for running a pipeline efficiently in a given time horizon while considering almost all practical restrictions. The algorithm was able to achieve a near-optimal solution in a reasonable time. The approach was successfully applied to a number of pipelines including a real-life problem. The data and experimental results were reported.