Scheduling of multi product/multi-pump pipeline distribtion system

Energy transportation is a vital field in the petroleum industry. The transport using multi-product pipeline is a new but challenging technic to distribute refined products. The management of such system is the most challenging issue of these systems. This paper proposed solve this management problem using a continuous mixed-integer linear programming (MILP) model for the scheduling of a straight-structured/unidirectional multi-product pipeline system that links one refinery to several centers. We consider that the refinery uses a pump station that contains several pumps with different characteristics. Also, multiple deliveries due dates are considered. Our objective consists in minimizing the costs of the interfaces, pumping, and penalties of the unsatisfied demands at the right time and maximize the pipeline utilization. The MILP scheduling model is applied in an oil company in Algeria to test the efficiency of our model in real-case.