Multiperiod Planning Model for Integrated Optimization of a Refinery Production and Utility System

Abstract

In this work, a novel integrated optimization approach that couples the production system and the utility system of a refinery is proposed to explore the potential for increasing the overall refinery margin and reducing the economic losses due to energy waste compared with the traditional approach in which the two systems are optimized sequentially. A multiperiod refinery-wide mixed-integer nonlinear programming (MINLP) model is formulated to optimize the production planning of the processing unit and the operational planning of the utility equipment simultaneously. The energy consumption and generation model of the processing unit is introduced to correlate the two systems in terms of energy by linking the amounts of energy consumed and generated with the unit throughput, product properties, and operation mode. A material balance of fuel oil and fuel gas is considered to integrate the two systems in terms of materials to improve energy utilization in a multiperiod planning site. A real industrial example...