Optimal Economic Operation of Liquid Petroleum Products Pipeline Systems

TL;DR

This paper develops a computational method to optimize the operation of existing liquid petroleum pipelines, aiming to maximize economic benefits and minimize costs through flow and pump settings.

Contribution

It introduces a general approach for solving non-convex nonlinear optimization problems in pipeline operation, including decision variables like pump settings and flow allocations.

Findings

Optimal operating regimes identified for a crude oil pipeline.

Economic sensitivity analyses performed using real data.

Method effectively balances operational costs and economic value.

Abstract

The majority of overland transport needs for crude petroleum and refined petroleum products are met using pipelines. Numerous studies have developed optimization methods for design of these systems in order to minimize construction costs while meeting capacity requirements. Here, we formulate problems to optimize the operations of existing single liquid commodity pipeline systems subject to physical flow and pump engineering constraints. The objectives are to maximize the economic value created for users of the system and to minimize operating costs. We present a general computational method for this class of continuous, non-convex nonlinear programs, and examine the use of pump operating settings and flow allocations as decision variables. The approach is applied to compute optimal operating regimes and perform engineering economic sensitivity analyses for a case study of a crude oil pipeline developed using publicly available data.