Dynamic Scheduling of Oil Refinery based on Model-optimization and Process-configuration

The refinery scheduler needs set up new balance quickly among the equipments and storage when equipment conks out or a line in trouble. One of the main reasons why static methods seem to be inadequate in practice to support production management decisions is because they are difficult to combine schedulers´ experience in models quickly. The proposed process-configuration approach gives the flexibility to customize any aspect of the model with little effort, or to include schedulers´ experience quickly when unexpected event happen. The refinery is modelled as a group of interconnected graph nodes and lines, which resembles an individual physical equipments or storage and material flow. The user can modelling dynamically by dragging the node, linking the line and fixing their parameters. Using the saved simulation results, the system allows the user to set up a new model by modifying few property of the component or changing some line´s direction. As a result, the user can easily configure the process and modify the model to reflect changes in the production process and obtain more realistic results.