Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research, Vol.52, No.25, 8507-8517, 2013
Tactical and Operational Planning of Multirefinery Networks under Uncertainty: An Iterative Integration Approach
The oil industry is increasingly interested in improving the planning of their operations, because of the dynamic nature of the oil business. This study intends to establish an iterative integration approach for the tactical and operational planning of multisite refining networks. Tactical and operational mathematical models are proposed. Both models are two-stage stochastic linear programs in which uncertainty is incorporated into the dominant random parameters at each decision level. Decisions made. in the oil industry differ based on multisite network echelon (spatial integration) and planning horizon (temporal integration). Spatial integration is discussed at the tactical level, whereas temporal integration is discussed with respect to the interaction between the two levels. In the proposed temporal integration approach (iterative approach), there is a cyclic information flow between the two models. An industrial scale study using data from the Brazilian oil industry was conducted to discuss the benefits of integration in a stochastic environment