IEEJ TRANSACTIONS ON ELECTRICAL AND ELECTRONIC ENGINEERING

IEEJ Trans 2016; 11: 593–603

Published online in Wiley Online Library (wileyonlinelibrary.com). DOI:10.1002/tee.22277

Paper

A Genetic Algorithm Approach to Short-Term Scheduling of Crude Oil

Operations in Refinery
Yan Hou∗ , Non-member
NaiQi Wu∗,∗∗a , Non-member
ZhiWu Li∗∗ , Non-member

As a type of process plant, a refinery is characterized by the interaction of discrete events and continuous processes. To
schedule crude oil operations in a refinery, it is necessary to define and schedule the jobs simultaneously such that heuristics
and meta-heuristics cannot be directly applied. It is very challenging to schedule crude oil operations. To solve this problem, it
is decomposed into two subproblems hierarchically. At the upper level, a refining schedule is found, while at the lower level a
detailed schedule is obtained to realize the refining schedule. Given a refining schedule at the upper level, this paper studies the
detailed scheduling problem at the lower level. Based on a control-theoretic perspective, the problem is innovatively transformed
to a problem of assigning charging tanks to distillers such that meta-heuristic methods can be applied. Then, a genetic algorithm
(GA) approach is developed to solve the problem. In realizing the proposed GA, based on a set of existence conditions of a
feasible schedule, methods are presented to guarantee that each chromosome corresponds to a feasible schedule. An industrial
case study is used to show the application of the proposed method. It shows that the method works well and is applicable to
real-life problems. © 2016 Institute of Electrical Engineers of Japan. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Keywords: crude oil operations; short-term scheduling; genetic algorithm

Received 28 January 2015; Revised 27 September 2015

1. Introduction be defined during the scheduling process, which makes heuris-

There are mainly two categories of manufacturing systems: dis-
crete manufacturing and process production. For process produc-
tion, it is known that there is great potential for benefit gains if a
plant is well operated [1]. To do so, the manufacturing execution
system (MES) plays a vital role. In an MES, there are two main
modules: production planning and short-term scheduling. For oil
refinery, the planning technique has been well developed by using
linear programming-based commercial software packages such as
PIMS (process industry modeling system) [2] and RPMS (refin-
ery and petrochemical modeling system) [3]. As pointed out in
Ref. [4], the expectation for further progress in planning technol-
ogy is unrealistic. While techniques for production planning in oil
refinery are well developed, there are no efficient techniques and
commercial software tools for short-term scheduling [1,5].
For a refinery process, there are both discrete-event and con-
tinuous variables, i.e., the process constitutes a hybrid system.
Thus, the short-term scheduling problem of oil refinery belongs to
a hybrid optimization problem. Such a problem is combinatorial
in nature and is shown to be NP-hard [6]. Short-term schedul-
ing of crude oil operations is one of the most difficult problems
in scheduling an oil refinery. For an NP-hard problem, heuristics
or meta-heuristics are advisable. However, to make heuristics or
meta-heuristics applicable, it is required that the jobs to be sched-
uled should be well defined and known in advance. For short-term
scheduling of crude oil operations, at the beginning, one knows
only the state of the system and the jobs to be scheduled should
a
Correspondence to: Naiqi Wu. E-mail: nqwu@must.edu.mo
* Department of Industrial Engineering, Guangdong University of Tech-
nology, Guangzhou 510006, China
** Macau Institute of Systems Engineering, Macau University of Science
and Technology, Taipa, Macau
tics or meta-heuristics very difficult if not impossible [7]. Hence,
up to now, effective techniques and software tools for short-term
scheduling in oil refinery are lacking. In practice, the scheduling
job is still done manually by a planner by trial and error. Thus,
not only the obtained schedule is nonoptimal but also the job is
very tedious.
In recent years, great efforts have been made for the short-
term scheduling problems of process industry. With heuristics
and meta-heuristics being not applicable, mixed-integer linear
programming (MILP) or mixed-integer nonlinear programming
(MINLP) is used to formulate the short-term scheduling problem
of crude oil operations. The model obtained is solved in an exact
way. With the process being hybrid, by such models the key
is how to describe the time. There are two ways of doing this:
discrete-time and continuous-time representation. By discrete-time
representation, the whole scheduling horizon is divided into time
slots with uniform duration such that an event starts and ends
at the boundary of a time slot. With such a model, to obtain
an acceptable accuracy, the time slots should be small enough.
Generally, it is required that a slot should be less than 15 min. The
work in Refs. [8–14] belongs to this category. With discrete-time
representation, an MILP model can be obtained if crude oil mixing
is not taken into account. However, there are a large number of
binary variables, leading to that it involves prohibitive computation
and is not applicable to real-life problems.
In order to overcome the drawbacks of discrete-time represen-
tation, efforts have been made to model the problem such that the
start and end time point of an event can be exactly found, leading
to the continuous-time representation. The work in Refs. [15–19]
belongs to this category. By doing so, the number of binary
variables in the model is indeed significantly reduced. However,
there are nonlinear constraints, or the problem is formulated as an
MINLP model that is difficult to solve. By linearization, the solu-
tion obtained may be infeasible. Furthermore, by continuous-time

© 2016 Institute of Electrical Engineers of Japan. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
 Y. HOU, N. WU, AND Z. LI
Refining Schedule
Schedulability
Detailed Schedule
Hybrid Model
The Plant
Fig. 1. Architecture of scheduling for crude oil operations
representation, it requires that the number of discrete events to
happen during the scheduling horizon should be known at the
beginning [6]. This is not the case in practice. Moreover, for
both discrete- and continuous-time models, special assumptions
are made and some constraints are ignored such that the problem
is solvable, which makes the solution unrealistic and infeasible for
real-world cases [20]. Consequently, the techniques using MILP
are hard to use in practical application.
To solve the problem, the short-term scheduling problem of
crude oil operations is modeled by a kind of hybrid Petri
nets by extending the resource-oriented Petri nets developed in
Refs. [21–24]. Based on such models, the problem is studied in
a control-theoretic perspective in Refs. [7,25–30,36] and a novel
approach is presented. By this approach, the short-term scheduling
problem of crude oil operations is decomposed into two subprob-
lems in a hierarchical way, as shown in Fig. 1. At the upper
level, a refining schedule is found by optimizing some objectives,
such as productivity maximization and crude oil inventory min-
imization. At the lower level, a detailed schedule is obtained to
realize the refining schedule. To guarantee that a refining sched-
ule is realizable by a feasible detailed schedule, a hybrid Petri net
model is proposed to describe the crude oil operations. With the
Petri net model, schedulability analysis is made from a control-
theoretic perspective, and schedulability conditions are derived
for different circumstances. If such conditions are met, a feasi-
ble schedule exists; otherwise, no feasible schedule can be found.
These conditions are then used as constraints to obtain an optimal
and realizable refining schedule, and a three-stage method is pro-
posed to find such a schedule in Refs. [31, 37]. By this method,
refining scheduling problem can be efficiently solved mainly based
on a linear programming formulation. Also, based on the schedu-
lability conditions, a safe state is defined in Refs. [7,25–27] and
is presented later. A detailed short-term schedule to realize a refin-
ing schedule is obtained recursively by making the system transfer
from one safe state to another Refs. [7, 25–27, 36]. It is compu-
tationally efficient.
In operating a refinery, to make it profitable, there are a variety
of objectives to be optimized [32]. When a tank is discharged, it
cannot be fully emptied and some oil remains, called heels [13]. If
a tank is filled with one type of crude oil and then, after discharged,
another type of crude oil is charged into it, the heel is mixed with
the newly filled oil, leading to oil type degradation or cost increase.
To reduce such cost requires filling the same type of crude oil or
the type of crude oil with less difference in components. Oil degra-
dation also occurs when there is a switch from one type of crude
oil to another in crude oil transportation via a pipeline. Thus, min-
imizing cost due to oil degradation is an objective in scheduling
crude oil operations, which is relevant to the detailed scheduling
problem. The methods proposed in Refs. [7,25–27, 36] find a fea-
sible schedule only, but do not optimize the schedule to minimize
the cost resulting from oil degradation. This is not enough, and
594
it is necessary to find an optimal detailed schedule. This paper
conducts a study on this issue.
With the combinatorial nature, the detailed scheduling prob-
lem is still NP-hard, although it is one of the subproblems of
scheduling crude oil operations. For NP-hard problems, one may
prefer heuristics and meta-heuristics if possible. However, in
scheduling crude oil operations, at the beginning, the jobs to be
scheduled are unknown and should be defined during the schedul-
ing process. Hence, as pointed out by Wu et al . [26], heuristics
and meta-heuristics are not applicable to the scheduling prob-
lem of crude oil operations. To solve this problem, in this paper,
based on the schedulability conditions obtained in our previous
work [25,27–29], the problem is innovatively transformed into a
charging tank assignment problem that is similar to an optimiza-
tion problem of discrete event process. By doing so, it is possible
to use meta-heuristics for the short-term scheduling problem of
crude oil operations. However, since the feasibility of a schedule
is sequence-dependent in charging tank assignment, an initial solu-
tion cannot be generated as is done directly by a meta-heuristic.
Then, a method is proposed to obtain a feasible population. Thus, a
genetic algorithm (GA) is developed to solve it such that a solution
can be found efficiently. This is the first attempt to develop such
a method. As pointed out above, since the jobs to be scheduled
for this problem are not known, originally heuristics and meta-
heuristics are not applicable to it, and there is no computationally
efficient method to solve it. This work makes heuristics and meta-
heuristics usable such that the addressed problem can be efficiently
solved. This is a significant contribution.
The remainder of this paper is organized as follows. The refinery
process is briefly introduced and the refining scheduling problem
is presented in Section 2. Section 3 defines the detailed scheduling
problem and then transforms it into a charging tank assignment
problem. Based on the results obtained in Section 3, a GA method
is developed to solve the problem in Section 4. An industrial case
study is used to show the application of the proposed method in
Section 5. Section 6 concludes the work.
2. The Processes and Refining Scheduling Problem
2.1. Refinery processes Generally, crude oil is carried to
a port near the refinery plant by crude tankers and is unloaded into
storage tanks by the port. The crude oil in the storage tanks is then
transported to charging tanks in the refinery plant via a pipeline.
The charging tanks feed crude oil into distillers for distillation.
After distillation, various middle products that come out from the
distillers are delivered to other production units for fractionation
and further reaction such that a variety of components are obtained.
These components are then blended to form the final products. In
the viewpoint of production planning and scheduling, there are
three stages in the refinery processes: (i) crude oil operations;
(ii) production, including all the reactions, such as distillation,
catalysis and cracking, reforming, and storage of middle products;
and (iii) the delivery of final products to the market. Short-term
scheduling of crude oil operations is one of the most difficult
scheduling problems in a refinery [33]. In this paper, we discuss
the short-term scheduling problem of crude oil operations.
The process of crude oil operations is illustrated in Fig. 2. In
this process, it performs the following operations: (i) crude oil
unloading from a tanker at the port into the storage tanks by the
port; (ii) crude oil transportation from storage tanks to charging
tanks in the refinery plant via a pipeline; and (iii) crude oil feeding
from charging tanks to distillers for distillation. In this process,
there are a variety of constraints, including resource and process
constraints. The resource constraints include: (i) the number of
storage and charging tanks and their capacity are limited; (ii) the
flow rate of the pipeline should be in a given range; (iii) the
IEEJ Trans 11: 593–603 (2016)
 A GENETIC ALGORITHM APPROACH TO SHORT-TERM SCHEDULING
Crude oil Storage Charging
tanker tanks Pipeline tanks
Fig. 2. Process of crude oil operations
volume of all oil types in the tanks and the incoming tankers is
limited. The process constraints include the following: (i) a distiller
must be kept working continuously without interruption, unless
maintenance is necessary; (ii) for each distiller, at any time, at
least one charging tank should be used to feed crude oil; (iii) a
tank cannot be charged and discharged simultaneously; (iv) after
a storage or charging tank is charged, the oil in it must stay there
for a certain amount of time to separate the brine before it can be
discharged for processing (this constraint is called oil residency
time constraint); and (v) the pipeline is full of oil all times with
oil segments of different oil types, though it can be idle at some
time. It is these constraints that make the short-term scheduling
problem of crude oil operations very complicated.
2.2. Short-term scheduling problem A short-term
schedule for crude oil operations should provide all the activi-
ties for every production facility on the whole scheduling horizon
in detail. Such a schedule is composed of a series of operations.
A schedule is to decide what operations should be performed
and when an operation should be performed. Hence, to describe
a short-term schedule, an operation decision (OD) is defined as
follows.
Definition 1 : An operation decision is defined as OD =
(COT, ξ , S , D, INT), where COT = crude oil type; ξ = volume of
crude oil to be delivered by the operation; S = the source device
from which crude oil is to be transferred; D = the destination to
which crude oil is to be transferred; and INT = [a, b] is a time
interval in which a and b represent the start and end time point of
the operation, respectively.
As pointed out in Ref. [25], in practice, for a single operation,
the flow rate in delivering crude oil during [a,b] is set as a constant
and is given as ξ /(b –a). For crude oil operations, there are three
types of ODs: crude oil unloading from a tanker to storage tanks,
transportation from storage tanks to charging tanks, and feeding
from charging tanks to distillers, denoted by ODU, ODT, and ODF,
respectively. Their time durations are denoted as [ρ, δ], [λ, μ],
and [ω, π ], respectively. ODF ki is used to denote the i th OD for
feeding distiller k . Let  = [τs , τe ] denote the scheduling horizon,
g = ξ /(δ –ρ), f = ξ /(μ–λ), and h = ξ /(π –ω) denote flow rates for
tanker unloading, pipeline transportation, distiller feeding decided
by ODs, respectively, and K denote the number of distillers.
Given the system state at τs , the short-term scheduling problem is
described as follows:
SCHD = {ODU1 , . . . , ODUw , ODT1 , . . . ,
ODTz , ODF1 , . . . , ODFK }
subject to
ωk 1 = τs , πk 1 = ωk 2 , . . . , πk (i −1) = ωki , . . . ,
and πkn = τe , ∀k ∈ {1, 2, . . . , K }
and the above resource and process constraints.
In (1), w and z denote the number of ODUs and ODTs,
respectively. Notice that for ODF ki , INT ki = [ωki , πki ]. Hence,
Constraint (2) guarantees that the schedule covers the entire
scheduling horizon and a distiller operates uninterruptedly. In find-
ing the schedule, some objectives should be optimized [32], which
include (a) maximization of production rate; (b) minimization
of crude oil inventory cost; (c) minimization of the number of
switches from a charging tank to another in feeding the distillers;
(d) minimization of oil mixing in tank charging and discharging;
Distillers and (e) minimization of the changeover cost in oil transportation
from the storage tanks to charging tanks via the pipeline.
When one type of crude oil goes through the pipeline and then
another type of oil follows, there is bound to be oil type mixing
to a certain extent, and some cost will be incurred because of oil
type degradation. Objective (e) is to minimize such a cost.
To find such a schedule, initially we know (i) the inventory
of crude oil in the tanks and pipeline; (ii) the information about
coming tankers, including when a tanker arrives, the types and
amount of crude oil in the tanker; and (iii) the current working
states of every production unit, including the state of a distiller,
whether a tank or pipeline is being charged or discharged, and if
so, the type of crude oil and the charging or discharging rate. In
other words, at the beginning, the only information known to us
is the system state, but the ODs (or the jobs) to be scheduled are
unknown and need to be defined during the scheduling process.
Thus, no heuristic or meta-heuristic is reported for this scheduling
problem.
2.3. The refining scheduling problem To make the
short-term scheduling problem of crude oil operations solvable,
this problem is studied from the control-theoretic perspective
in Refs. [7,25,34,36]. By this approach, the process of crude
oil operations is modeled by hybrid Petri nets (PNs). With the
PN models, schedulability is analyzed, and the schedulability
conditions under which a feasible schedule exists are derived.
They are briefly introduced later. Based on the schedulability
conditions, the short-term scheduling problem is discomposed into
subproblems in a hierarchical way, as shown in Fig. 1. At the upper
level, a refining scheduling problem is solved, while a detailed
schedule is found to realize the refining schedule at the lower level.
To describe the refining scheduling problem, a feeding parcel (FP)
of crude oil is defined as follows:
Definition 2 : A feeding parcel of crude oil is defined as FP =
(COT, ζ , [ε, η]), where COT = crude oil type to be fed into a
distiller; ζ = volume of crude oil to be fed into a distiller; and [ε,
η] is a time interval in which ε and η are the start and end time
points for feeding this parcel of crude oil.
With Definition 2, let FP ij = (COTij , ζij , [εij , ηij ]) denote the
j th FP for feeding Distiller i . Assume that there are Q FPs for
feeding Distiller i during the scheduling horizon. Then, a refining
schedule for Distiller i is defined as RSi = {FPi 1 , FP i 2 , . . . ,
FP iQ }. With K distillers in the system, let DS = {1, 2, . . . , K } be
the index set of distillers and fij = ζij /(ηij –εij ). Then, the refining
scheduling problem is to find an ordered set of FPs RS = {RS 1 ,
RS 2 , . . . , RS K } such that the following conditions are satisfied.
τs = εi 1 , ηi 1 = εi 2 , . . . , ηij = εi (j +1) , . . . , ηi (Q−1 ) = εiQ ,
and ηiQ = τe , ∀i ∈ DS (3)
(1)
Fi (MIN) ≤ fij ≤ Fi (MAX) , ∀i ∈ DS (4)
where Fi (MIN) and Fi (MAX) are the permissible minimum and
maximum flow rates for feeding Distiller i , respectively. A sample
(2) of refining schedule from a real-life refinery is shown in Fig. 3,
where there are three distillers and two FPs for each distiller with
a 10-day scheduling horizon.
595 IEEJ Trans 11: 593–603 (2016)
 Y. HOU, N. WU, AND Z. LI
Distiller1 Oil #1 Oil #5
Oil #6 Oil #7
Distiller2
Distiller3 Oil #3 Oil #4
Time (H)
0
20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160 180 200 220 240
Fig. 3. A sample of refining schedule
Based on the schedulability conditions obtained in
Refs. [7,25,34,36], an efficient approach is presented in Refs. [31,37]
to find an optimal and realizable refining schedule for optimizing
Objectives (a) and (b).
3. Detailed Scheduling and Its Properties
3.1. Detailed scheduling problem A refining schedule
is a target in scheduling crude oil operations, and it should be
realized by a detailed schedule defined by (1). Examine a refining
schedule RS, an RS i for Distiller i specifies COT ij , ζij , and
[εij , ηij ], which requires that, at time εij , some amount of oil of
type COT ij should be in some charging tanks. If, otherwise, the
charging tanks used for feeding Distiller i are occupied by oil type
other than type COT ij , the refining schedule cannot be realized.
Thus, to find a detailed schedule for realizing a given refining
schedule is to transport the right types of crude oil with the right
volume at the right time to the right charging tanks. Also, we need
to use the right charging tanks to feed the right distillers at the right
time with the right volume. Notice that, for an FP ij for Distiller i ,
denote
no information about charging tanks is specified. Thus, generally
it should be realized by several ODFs, i.e., more than one charging
tank is required to sequentially feed the oil specified in FP ij . In
other words, the detailed scheduling problem is to find a series of
ODUs, ODTs, and ODFs such that each FP ij is exactly realized
× fds1 , α2 =
by a number of ODFs.
× fds2 , . . . , and αK =
× fdsK ; (ii) there are 2K + 2 charging
One issue for the detailed scheduling problem is whether a given
refining schedule is realizable. This can be done with the schedu-
lability conditions derived in Refs. [25,34]. Thereafter, we assume
that a given refining schedule is always realizable. To solve the
detailed scheduling problem, by using the schedulability condi-
tions, a feasible detailed schedule is easily found by transferring a
system from a safe state to another safe one, as in Refs. [25,34].
By doing so, a detailed schedule can be found OD by OD in
a recursive way. Nevertheless, in this way, the obtained detailed
schedule is just a feasible one, and no objective is optimized.
Notice that, among the objectives for the short-term scheduling
problem of crude oil operations, Objectives (a) and (b) are related
to the refining scheduling problem, while Objectives (c)–(e) are
involved in the detailed scheduling problem. One should optimize
these objectives in finding a detailed schedule.
Up to now, there is no efficient method for the detailed schedul-
ing problem of crude oil operations such that the relevant objec-
tives are optimized. Of course, one can formulate the detailed
scheduling problem of crude oil operations as a mixed integer
programming problem as done in the literature. Notice that, by a
detailed schedule, one should provide all the activities in every
detail for all the devices and production units. As pointed out
by Honkomp et al . [5], it is the detail that makes the short-term
scheduling problem too difficult to be solved. In fact, if a mixed
integer programming formulation is used, there will be hundreds
of thousands of binary variables for a real-life application prob-
lem [27]. It is impossible to solve such a large problem by an exact
way as mathematical programming models do in an acceptable
time.
596
Because of the computational complexity for solving the
detailed scheduling problem by a mixed integer programming for-
mulation, it cannot be solved efficiently by an exact way. A good
choice is to use heuristics or meta-heuristics. However, by such
methods, it requires that the jobs to be scheduled should be known
a priori. As presented by Definition 2, the jobs for the short-term
scheduling problem of crude oil operations are ODs. With COT, ξ ,
S , D, and INT being decision variables, the ODs are to be deter-
mined by a schedule, but are not known at the beginning of the
scheduling horizon. Thus, to make meta-heuristic applicable to the
problem addressed, one needs to solve this problem in a different
way. This work converts the problem to a different one such that
GA can be applied.
3.2. Properties of the problem It follows from the
definition in Section 2 that a schedule for crude oil operations
is composed of a series of ODs. By Definition 2, the execution
of an OD changes the states of some devices in the system, or it
transfers the system from one state to another. To make sure that
a detailed schedule can be found, the concept of a safe state is
defined as follows.
Definition 3 : An initial state Z at time zero for crude oil
operations is said to be safe if there exists a feasible short-term
schedule for a scheduling horizon  = [0, ∞].
It should be pointed out that, since the operation of distillers
cannot be interrupted, by starting from state Z , one may find a
feasible schedule SCHD 1 for horizon [0, τ1 ]. However, a feasible
schedule SCHD 2 for schedule horizon [0, τ2 ] with τ2 > τ1 may not
exist. Hence, in Definition 3, the scheduling horizon is required to
be  = [0, ∞]. A state is safe if, at this state, the schedulability
conditions presented in Refs. [25,27,34] are satisfied. Let
the oil residency time, fdsi be the feeding rate to Distiller i , and
Fpmax be the maximum flow rate of the pipeline. We state the
schedulability conditions as follows.
Theorem 1 [25]: Assume that (i) the feeding rate for the K
distillers DS 1−K is fds1 > fds2 > . . . > fdsK , α1 =
tanks TK 1 – (2K +2) with capacities ξ1 ≥ K α1 , ξ2 ≥ K α1 , ξ3 ≥ K α1 ,
ξ4 ≥ K α2 , ξ5 ≥ K α2 , . . . , ξ2i ≥ K αi , ξ2i +1 ≥ K αi , . . . , and ξ2K ≥
K αK , ξ2K +1 ≥ K αK , ξ2K +2 ≥ K αK ; (iii) Fpmax = fds1 + fds2 +
. . . + fdsK ; (iv) initially, the volume of oil type 1 in TK 1 and TK 2 is
ζ1 = ζ2 = K α1 , the volume of oil type 2 in TK 4 is ζ4 = K α2 , . . . ,
the volume of oil type i in TK 2i is ζ2i = K αi , . . . , the volume
of oil type K in TK 2K is ζ2K = K αK ; the other tanks are empty,
and the oil in TK 1 , TK 4 , . . . , TK 2i , . . . , and TK 2K is ready to
feed; (v) the volume of crude oil of type K remaining in storage
tanks is β < αK , and after processing this amount of oil type K ,
distiller DS K should switch to process oil type j . Then, the system
is schedulable and the volume β of oil type K can be used up
without being mixed with other oil type.
By Theorem 1, for a state, the schedulability conditions specify
(i) the crude oil inventory in tanks and the pipeline; (ii) the
operations that are being performed; (iii) the available charging
tanks; and (iv) the production rate. They present the boundary for
finding a feasible schedule and require that (a) generally it needs
three charging tanks for feeding a distiller; (b) the production rate
is bounded by the flow rate of the pipeline; and (c) the amount
of oil in the charging tanks at the initial state. In practice, these
conditions can be well satisfied if the system is properly operated.
By the definition of a refining schedule RS, the production rate
is decided and an FP ij should be realized by a number of ODFs.
Given a refining schedule RS, to find a detailed schedule, one
needs to find a series of ODs such that an FP ij in the RS can be
realized by dividing it into m ODFs, i.e., ODF ij 1 , ODF ij 2 , . . . , and
ODF ijm , and the schedulability conditions given in Theorem 1 are
satisfied. To simplify the presentation, without loss of generality,
IEEJ Trans 11: 593–603 (2016)
 A GENETIC ALGORITHM APPROACH TO SHORT-TERM SCHEDULING
we assume that there is enough storage capacity in storage tanks
to unload crude oil from tankers. Also, by assumption, a given
refining schedule is realizable, which implies that there is enough
crude oil in the storage tanks for realizing the schedule such that
when an ODT is created, one can omit variable S (a storage tank)
in it. Thus, the key is how to transport crude oil from storage tanks
to charging tanks. Let
denote the oil residency time, and fpmax and how much oil is for feeding DS i in the charging tanks at
and fi be the maximum flow rate of the pipeline and the feeding
rate of Distiller i decided by the refining schedule, respectively.
Then, we have the following property.
Property 1: Given a realizable refining schedule, a feasible
detailed schedule to realize the refining schedule can be found
by determining the ODs one by one in a recursive way by using
the schedulability conditions in Refs. [25,27,34].
Proof : By assumption, the given refining schedule is realizable,
or at initial state Z0 , Conditions (i) and (iii) are satisfied. By
starting from Z0 , when, for the first time, a charging tank, say Tank
#1 denoted as TK 1 , is released, one can decide to assign it to serve
for feeding a distiller, say Distiller i denoted as DS i by using the
schedulability conditions. Given a refining schedule, the oil type
and volume for FP i 1 are COT i 1 and ζi 1 , respectively. Assume that
the volume of oil with type COT i 1 in the charging tanks is ζ0 . At
the same time, we can charge TK 1 with volume ζ1 ≤ ζi 1 –ζ0 such
that the resulting state is safe and the end time of charging TK 1 is
earlier than ζ0 /fi –
. In this way, an ODT i 1 is created by setting to TK h in creating the ODT ih are different as well, which results
COT = COT i 1 , ξ = ζ1 , D = TK1 , and b –a = ζ1 /fpmax . Notice that
a is the moment when TK 1 becomes empty. In this way, a and
b are decided. With ODT i 1 created, an ODF i 1 for feeding DS i
can be created by feeding volume ζ1 in TK 1 after feeding volume
ζ0 . Then, after some time, TK 2 is released and assigned to serve
for feeding DS i again. Hence, ODT i 2 is created for charging TK 2
with ζ2 , and ODF i 2 is created for feeding DS i by TK 2 . In this
way, one can create ODT i 1 , ODT i 2 , . . . , and ODT ig such that
ζ1 + ζ2 + . . . + ζg = ζi 1 –ζ0 . Then, when charging tank TK g+1 is
assigned for feeding DS i , ODT i (g+1) is created to charge TK g+1
with oil type COT i 2 for FP i 2 and volume ζg+1 ≤ ζi 2 such that
the end time of charging TK g+1 is earlier than ζi 1 /fi –
. Based
on the schedulability conditions, this process continues such that,
given a DS i , every FP ij is realized by a number of ODTs and
ODFs. Similarly, for any DS k , every FP kj can be realized in this
way. Notice that every OD is created based on the state resulted
from the execution of the previous OD. By doing so, the ODs are
created one by one in a recursive way. 
By Property 1, given a refining schedule, one can find a feasible
detailed schedule in a simple way without solving a mixed integer
programming problem. It follows from the proof of Property 1
that, when a charging tank is available and is assigned for feeding
a distiller, an ODT is created. Then, based on the ODT, an ODF is
created. In this way, to find a detailed schedule, the key is to assign
the charging tanks. In creating an ODT for a distiller, to realize a
given refining schedule, the type of oil is already determined and
the variable to be decided is the volume of oil to be charged into
the charging tank. We present the following rule to determine the
volume for creating an ODT.
Oil transportation rule (OTR): Assume that, at state Zk , charg-
ing tank TK h is released and assigned to serve for feeding Distiller
i , resulting in the creation of ODT ih to transport volume ζh of oil
from the storage tanks to TK h . Then, ζh is set as large as possible
such that the resulting state Zk +1 after the execution of ODT ih is
safe.
Notice that, by making ζh as large as possible, we minimize
the number of switches from one type of crude oil to another in
transporting crude oil from storage tanks to charging tanks via
the pipeline. Also, an ODF ih is created for feeding DS i based on
ODT ih such that volume ζh can be fed into DS i without charging
the tank switch. By doing so, one minimizes both Objectives
(c) and (e).
597
Property 2 : By the OTR, given a realizable refining schedule,
a detailed schedule is determined by the assignment of charging
tanks.
Proof : Assume that, at state Zk , charging tank TK h is released
and assigned to serve for feeding DS i , which results in the creation
of ODT ih . Then, one knows how much oil has been fed into DS i
that time. The FP ij that is partially realized by ODT ih and the
remaining volume ζ1 for FP ij to be transported from the storage
tanks to charging tanks are known too. Further, assume that, in
creating ODT ih , at most volume ζ2 of oil can be transported such
that the resulting state Zk +1 is safe. According to the schedulability
conditions, if one sets ζh ≤ ζ2 in creating ODT ih , the resulting
state is still safe. Thus, in creating ODT ih , by applying OTR we
set ζh = min(ζ1 , ζ2 ). This implies that every time a charging tank
is assigned to serve a distiller, an ODT is determined and followed
by an ODF. In this way, if a charging tank assignment sequence is
determined, a detailed schedule to realize a given refining schedule
is determined. 
Property 2 shows that the detailed scheduling problem can be
solved by determining the charging tank assignment sequence in a
dynamic way. It should be pointed out that, when a charging tank
TK h is released, it can be assigned to serve different distillers, and
the volume and type of oil to be transported from the storage tanks
in different performance. Assume that before the release of TK h ,
the oil type in it is #1. If it is assigned to DS i , it is charged with oil
type #2. However, if it is assigned to DS j , it may be charged with
oil type #3. This implies that different charging tank assignments
result in different cost for Objective (d). With this observation, we
have the following property.
Property 3: Given a realizable refining schedule, the detailed
scheduling problem is equivalent to finding an optimal charging
tank assignment sequence by using the schedulability conditions.
By Property 3, the detailed scheduling problem of crude oil
operations is converted to sequencing the charging tank assign-
ment. With the charging tanks being a kind of resources in a
refinery, this problem is a resource assignment problem, which
is somehow similar to the scheduling problem of discrete man-
ufacturing processes. Notice that the oil to be processed and the
tanks available are known at the beginning. Further, sequencing a
set of resources is an optimization problem for a discrete manufac-
turing system. Hence, meta-heuristics can be used, or we make the
short-term scheduling problem of crude oil operations solvable by
meta-heuristics. In this way, we overcome the challenging problem
that meta-heuristics are not applicable to the original short-term
scheduling problem of crude oil operations. Since GA is powerful
in combinatorial optimization, based on this problem conversion,
a GA method is presented to solve the problem next.
4. Genetic Algorithm for Solution
From the above analysis, the short-term scheduling problem of
crude oil operations is converted to another optimization problem,
i.e. the charging tank assignment and sequencing problem to
minimize Objectives (c)–(e). When a charging tank is released,
it can be assigned to serve for feeding any of distillers if the
schedulability conditions are satisfied. Given a refining schedule,
once such a decision is made, by using the OTR, the type
of oil and its volume to be transported via the pipeline for
charging this tank are also determined. Different charging tank
assignments have different effects on the number of COT switches
in oil transportation via the pipeline and the number of charging
tank switches in distiller feeding, resulting in different cost for
Objectives (c)–(e). An optimization method is necessary to solve
this problem and a GA approach is presented to do so next. Notice
IEEJ Trans 11: 593–603 (2016)
 Y. HOU, N. WU, AND Z. LI
Z0
Z1 Z2
ZK
Z 11 Z 12
Z 1K
Fig. 4. The K -tree for the problem
that, during the scheduling horizon, a charging tank can be charged
several times and a charging tank can be used to feed any distiller.
Due to the feasibility issue and that the charging tanks are not
available at the beginning, the charging tank sequencing for crude
oil operations is different from general resource sequencing for
scheduling discrete manufacturing. Hence, we cannot simply apply
the existing methods. The key is how to describe the problem by
the GA technique.
As shown in Fig. 4, assume that, at initial state Z0 , the charging
tank TK i is released; it can be assigned to serve for any of the
K distillers if the schedulability conditions can be satisfied, or
there may be K assignment choices denoted as D1 , D2 , . . . , DK .
When these different assignment choices are executed, the system
is transferred into different states denoted as Z1 , Z2 , . . . , and ZK ,
respectively. Further, when D1 is selected and executed, Z1 is
reached such that charging tank TK i is charged with the crude
oil decided by D1 . Then, TK j is released next. There may also be
K assignment choices denoted as D11 , D12 , . . . , and D1K , which
transfer the system into different states denoted as Z11 , Z12 , . . . ,
and Z1K , respectively. This process can be described by a graph
shown in Fig. 4. In this graph, from each node (state), there are K
branches and it is called a K -tree. In this graph, there is a route
from Z0 to each leaf, which forms a schedule. Since different
charging tank assignments result in different number of charging
tank release times, the number of nodes on different routes is
different. Assume that, at state Zj , charging tank TK i is released,
and the assignment choice Dk is selected, i.e. TK i is assigned
to serve for DS k and would be filled with crude oil decided by
DK such that ZK is reached. By doing so, the following situation
may occur. At state Zj , before making decision Dk , FP kj has been
already realized by a number of ODFs, leading to the fact that Dk
is not meaningful. In this case, Dk should be discarded, and the
partial route from Z0 to Zk should be deleted from the K -tree.
In the K -tree shown in Fig. 4, each route from root Z0 to a leaf
corresponds to a detailed schedule with different performance. It
can be seen that there may be K n routes in the K -tree, where n is
the number of charging tank release times in a detailed schedule,
i.e. the number of schedules is exponential with n. It is inefficient
to find a schedule by enumerating all possible schedules. To solve
this problem, a GA approach is developed to optimize the detailed
scheduling problem of crude oil operations as follows.
The implementation of GA begins with a population of chromo-
somes (typically generated randomly). One then evaluates these
chromosomes and allocates reproductive opportunities in such a
way that the chromosomes representing a better solution to the tar-
get problem are given more chances to reproduce than those that
are poorer [35]. The key here is to design a suitable chromosome
code such that a GA can be implemented.
4.1. Chromosome for the problem A chromosome in
GA is a code that represents a solution for the problem addressed.
It follows from the above discussion that a route from root Z0 to
a leaf represents a solution for the detailed scheduling problem
598
of crude oil operations. One needs a code to describe the routes
from root Z0 to the leaves. To do so, we define a chromosome
X defined as X = (a1 , a2 , . . . , ai , . . . , aN ), where ai ∈ DS is an
integer and N is the number of nodes from the root to the leaf on
each route. By ai ∈ DS representing a distiller ai , it means that the
i th released charging tank is assigned to feed distiller ai . It follows
from the above discussion and the OTR that, by ai , an ODT can
be decided and then an ODF. Thus, X = (a1 , a2 , . . . , ai , . . . , aN )
describes a schedule. One problem is how to determine N , the
number of nodes on a route, since it is not known in advance and is
route-dependent. Furthermore, the number of nodes is different for
different routes. To solve this problem, unlike general application
of GA, we allow N to vary, or the codes for the solutions can
have variable lengths. With such a code, we present how a GA for
the detailed short-term scheduling problem of crude oil operations
can be implemented next.
4.2. Length of chromosome To implement a GA with
variable length of code, the problem is how to code the chromo-
some. Assume that there are totally  routes in Fig. 4 and the
number of charging tank release times for the i th route is Ni ,
i ∈ {1, 2, . . . , }. Then, for the i th route, a decision of charging
tank assignment should be made for the j th release of a charg-
ing tank with j ≤ Ni . In this case, aj ∈ DS should be decided for
feeding the distiller. When j > Ni , a schedule has been already
obtained and one does not need to create any OD. In this case,
we define aj = 0, indicating that a detailed schedule is already
found when node Ni is reached. In this way, the codes for the
problem have different lengths. Let N ≥ max{N1 , N2 , . . . , N } be
the length of the chromosome. Then, ∀i ∈ {1, 2, . . . , }, Xi can
be coded as Xi = (a1 , a2 , . . . , aj , . . . , aN ) such that aj ∈ DS if
j ≤ Ni , and aj = 0 if j > Ni . By doing so, every schedule can
be coded by the above chromosome. One can choose an integer N
that is large enough such that N ≥ max{N1 , N2 , . . . , N } is guaran-
teed. However, an unnecessarily large N can result in unnecessary
computation in finding a schedule and it is meaningful to set a
suitable N . Although max{N1 , N2 , . . . , N } is unknown in advance
and cannot be exactly calculated, we can obtain a reasonable N as
follows. Given a refining schedule and the initial state, the types of
crude oil and their amount to be transported from the storage tanks
to charging tanks via the pipeline are known. Assume that the num-
ber of COTs to be transported is n, and their amount is O1 , O2 ,
. . . , and On , respectively. Further, let ζ = min{C1 , C2 , . . . , C }
and x be the ceiling of x , where Ci is the capacity of charging
tank i , and  is the number of charging tanks. Then, O1 /ζ +
O2 /ζ + . . . + On /ζ is a reasonable estimation of N . It should
be mentioned that, in order to guarantee the realizability of an
obtained refining schedule, the schedulability conditions are taken
as constraints. Note that improper charging tank assignment may
lead to a situation such that the state of the system reaches the
boundary of schedulability conditions. In this case, a charging tank
can be charged to volume ζ such that the number of charging tank
release times in a route may be greater than N . Notice that a large
N indicates that the number of COT switches in oil transportation
via the pipeline and the number of the charging tank switches in
distiller feeding are large, which results in high cost. To improve
the performance of the algorithm, when a charging tank assign-
ment leads to such a case, this assignment is discarded. This is a
charging tank assignment rule. When a charging tank is released
and assigned to serve for feeding a distiller, resulting in the cre-
ation of an ODT, one needs to decide the volume ζ of oil to be
charged into the tank. Let ζ1 = min{C1 , C2 , . . . , C } and ζ2 be the
remaining volume for implementing the corresponding FP. Then,
the rule is stated as follows:
Charging tank assignment rule (CTAR): Assume that charging
tank TK h is released and assigned to serve for feeding DS i ,
IEEJ Trans 11: 593–603 (2016)
 A GENETIC ALGORITHM APPROACH TO SHORT-TERM SCHEDULING
resulting in the creation of ODT ih to transport volume ζh of oil
from the storage tanks to TK h . If ζh decided by the OTR is less
than min{ζ1 , ζ2 }, this charging tank assignment is discarded.
With the above discussion, we present the procedure of the GA.
4.3. Initial population With the length of chromosome
determined, initial population should be constructed such that a
GA can work. Another important issue is how to ensure the
feasibility of a schedule coded by the chromosome. In general,
the chromosomes for the initial population should be generated
randomly. Also, feasibility is essential for a schedule, and a
member in the population should represent a feasible solution.
However, with various resource and process constraints for the
detailed short-term scheduling problem of crude oil operations,
one cannot guarantee that any chromosome randomly generated
represents a feasible schedule. Thus, it is necessary to develop
a method for generating chromosomes such that both feasibility
and randomness are guaranteed. For this purpose, we present the
following method to construct an initial population.
Suppose that, at state Zi , TK i is the i th released charging tank.
Let SD i denote the set of distillers such that at the current state,
according to the schedulability conditions, OTR, and CTAR, TK i
can be assigned to serve for DS k ∈ SDi . We select a distiller from
SD i , say DS k , and assign TK i to serve for feeding DS k and set
ai = k . With the schedulability conditions, OTR, and CTAR, an
ODT is generated, and then an ODF. After some time, at state Zj ,
the j th released charging tank is TK j . One can select DS m from
SD j randomly such that TK j is assigned to serve for feeding DS m
and set aj = m. In this way, a number of aj ’s, j ∈ {1, 2, . . . , Ni },
and the corresponding ODTs and ODFs are generated step by step
until all FP kj are realized by a number of generated ODFs. We
then set aj = 0, when Ni < j ≤ N . By doing so, we can obtain
a chromosome Xi = (a1 , a2 , . . . , aj , . . . , aN ) that represents a
feasible schedule. Notice that, every time when a charging tank
is released, we randomly select a distiller to be served by the
released tank. Hence, both feasibility and randomness in generating
a chromosome are guaranteed. With R being the population size,
by the above procedure, R chromosomes X1 , X2 , . . . , and XR can
be generated to form the initial population.
4.4. Evaluation of fitness function Let Wi denote
the schedule corresponding to chromosome Xi . When a tank is
discharged and recharged, if a different oil type is recharged into
the tank, there is a cost; otherwise there is no cost. Thus, for
Objective (d), the cost can be measured by the number of times
for recharging different oil types into tanks. Once a schedule is
obtained, the type of crude oil that is charged into a charging
tank is known. When this tank is discharged and recharged, one
knows whether a different type of crude oil is recharged to the
tank. In other words, one can count the number of recharging of
different COTs to a charging tank during the scheduling horizon.
Such a number for all the charging tanks can be calculated. Let
α denote such a number. Similarly, one can count the number of
COT switches in oil transportation via the pipeline and the number
of charging tank switches in distiller feeding for all the distillers.
They are denoted by β and γ , respectively.
As discussed in the last section, Objectives (c)–(e) are to be
optimized for the problem. In other words, this is a multiobjective
optimization problem that can be converted to a single-objective
optimization problem by using weighted sum. Notice that α, β, and
γ correspond to the indices to be optimized. Notice that, Objectives
(c)–(e) are all measured by the number of times. Hence, for
the GA method, P (Wi ) = ω1 α + ω2 β + ω3 γ is defined as the
fitness function, with ω1 , ω2 , and ω3 being the constant weighted
coefficients. One can adjust ω1 , ω2 , and ω3 to change the effects
of α, β, and γ .
599
4.5. Chromosome selection, crossover, and mutation
With the current population, the next generation is obtained by
selection, crossover, and mutation operations. While some of the
current chromosomes are selected to be offspring in the next gen-
eration directly by selection, new ones are generated by crossover
and mutation. According to Darwin’s evolution theory, the better
ones should survive and produce new offspring. The truncation
selection method is adopted for selection operation in this paper.
By this method, the chromosomes in the current population are
sorted by their fitness value such that only the excellent ones
can be selected to be offspring directly. To do so, a param-
eter called truncation threshold, denoted as ϕ with 0 < ϕ < 1,
is set. By the truncation selection method,  = R × ϕ best ones
among the current R chromosomes are selected as offspring in the
next generation population. If Xi is selected, it is renamed as Yi .
Crossover and mutation are the two basic operations for gener-
ating new chromosomes in GA. The uniform crossover method
is used for generating new offspring in this work. To imple-
ment the crossover operation, define an array E = (e1 , e2 , . . . , eN )
with ei = 0 or 1. For a crossover operation, two chromosomes
are randomly selected from the current population as parents, say
X1 = (a11 , a12 , . . . , a1N ) and X2 = (a21 , a22 , . . . , a2N ), for gener-
ating new offspring. With these two selected chromosomes as
parents, according to a given crossover probability, one decides
whether a crossover operation should be performed. If not, X1 and
X2 are taken as new offspring, and renamed as Y1 and Y2 . If yes, an
array E is randomly generated. Then, for ei = 1, i ∈ {1, 2, . . . , N },
swap a1i and a2i between X1 and X2 to generate two new offspring
Y1 and Y2 .
The mutation operation is performed as follows. Rename
Y1 and Y2 that are just obtained by a crossover operation as
H1 = (c11 , c12 , . . . , c1N ) and H2 = (c21 , c22 , . . . , c2N ). For H1 =
(c11 , c12 , . . . , c1N ), according to a given mutation probability, one
decides whether a mutation operation should be performed. If yes,
randomly select an index i ∈ {1, 2, . . . , N } and an index j ∈ DS/
{c1i }. In H1 , a new chromosome Y1 is generated by setting c1i = j .
If a mutation should not be performed, H1 is the new offspring and
it is renamed as Y1 . In the same way, we can obtain Y2 from H2 .
By crossover and mutation operations, we generate R –
chromosomes Y1 , Y2 , . . . , Yi , . . . , YR− , where Yi = (b1 , b2 , . . . ,
bj , . . . , bN ) and bj ∈ DS or bj = 0. Together with those obtained
by selection operation, a new generation with population size
R is obtained. However, just as above discussed, one can-
not guarantee that offspring Yi obtained by this means repre-
sents a feasible schedule. One needs to convert Yi to Xi =
(a1 , a2 , . . . , aj , . . . , aN ), which corresponds to a feasible solution.
There are several cases: (i) Yi represents a feasible solution; (ii)
for Yi , there is at least parameter bj such that FPbj k has been
realized by a number of ODFs; (iii) a partial of Yi with length
L< N represents a feasible solution; and (iv) when bN is reached,
there is at least one FP kj that has not been realized by a num-
ber of ODFs. These cases can be handled as follows to convert
Yi to a feasible chromosome. For Case (ii), start from b1 , just as
done for the generation of the initial population, and check bi ,
i = 1, . . . , N , to see if bi ∈ SD i . If not, randomly select value j in
SD i and let bi = j , until a feasible chromosome is obtained. For
Case (iii), one simply set bj = 0, L < j ≤ N and keep the oth-
ers unchanged. For Case (iv), Yi can be simply discarded directly
since, as discussed above, it is not good. Nevertheless, when Case
(iv) occurs, one more feasible chromosome should be generated
by using crossover and mutation such that the population size is R.
In summary, Algorithm 1 is presented to implement the conver-
sion of Yi ’s to feasible Xi ’s. Meanwhile it records the performance
indices α, β, and γ . In the algorithm, p is used to denote the
position in Yi and Xi ; M0 is a large integer number; and TC is the
set of charging tanks.
IEEJ Trans 11: 593–603 (2016)
 Y. HOU, N. WU, AND Z. LI

DS1 #5 #1
114

DS2 #6 #2
72

DS3 #4 #3
48
Time (H)
0
20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160 180 200 220 240

Fig. 5. The refining schedule for the example

Table I. Initial states for charging tanks

Tank Capacity (ton) Type of oil filled Volume (ton)

TK1 16 000 Oil #5 8000
TK2 34 000 Oil #5 30 000
TK3 34 000 Oil #4 30 000
TK4 34 000
TK5 34 000 Oil #3 30 000
TK6 16 000 Oil #1 16 000
TK7 20 000 Oil #6 16 000
TK8 16 000 Oil #6 5000
TK9 16 000
TK10 30 000
TK11 34 000 Oil #7 28 000
TK12 16 000 Oil #7 16 000

The residence time for each charging tank is 6 hours. It is known

When Case (ii) occurs, Statement 6 modifies the genes in the
chromosome such that the released charging tank is randomly
assigned to a distiller, say distiller k such that FP kj has not been
realized yet. Statements 7–10 calculate α, β, and γ , and obtain the
ODTs and ODFs. When Case (iii) occurs, Statement 15 sets aj =
0 when j > Ni . When Case (iv) occurs, Statement 16 sets a large
value M0 to α, β, and γ such that this chromosome is discarded.
4.6. Iteration and termination By Algorithm 1, based
on the initial population, a new generation can be obtained and at
the same time the fitness function is calculated. Then, this process
can be repeated until a termination condition is satisfied. We set
the termination conditions as (i) when the number of generations
exceeds a threshold value, and (ii) if the value of the fitness
function remains stable for several generations. When one of the
conditions is satisfied, the iteration terminates.
5. Industrial Case Study
This section uses a practical case scenario of a refinery in China
to show the application of the proposed method. The refinery has
three distillers named DS1 , DS2 , and DS3 with 12 charging tanks.
Three times each month, a short-term scheduling should be found
for the next 10 days. For this case study, a target refining schedule
is given in Fig. 5. Then, the short-term scheduling problem is to
find a detailed schedule to realize the given refining schedule such
that the objectives given in this paper are minimized.
The initial states for the 12 charging tanks are shown in Table I.
The maximum flow rate of the pipeline is 1250 tph (tons per
hour), and during the scheduling horizon the refining rates for
DS1 , DS2 and DS3 are 333.3, 291.7, and 625 tph, respectively.
that the crude oil in storage tanks is sufficient to realize the target
refining schedule. Thus, to obtain a detailed schedule is to schedule
the oil transportation via the pipeline and the distiller feeding.
According to the initial state shown in Table I and the refining
schedule in Fig. 5, oil type #7 is not used in the scheduling horizon.
In other words, charging tanks TK11 and TK12 are used for oil
storing only during this scheduling horizon. Also, from the initial
state and the refining schedule, the crude oil required by FP11 ,
FP21 , FP31 , and part of FP12 and FP32 is available in charging
tanks. The crude oil required by FP22 , and the other part of FP12
and FP32 should be transported from storage tanks to charging
tanks via the pipeline with volume being 25 992, 49 008, and
90 000 tons, respectively. That is to say, oil types #1, #2, and #3
need to be transported through the pipeline during the scheduling
horizon. Then, the proposed GA method is applied to find the
detailed schedule to minimize P (Wi ).
Computational experiments were carried out to examine the
performance of the presented GA for the problem. It was coded by
Visual C++ 6.0 and run on Microsoft Windows XP with Intel(R)
Celeron(R) CPU 3.06 GHz, 1.25 GB internal memory.
Among the charging tanks usable, tanks TK1 , TK6 , TK8 , and
TK9 have the smallest capacity ζ = 16 000. Hence, we have N =
25992/16000 + 49008/16000 + 90000/16000 = 12. In the
experiments, different values of truncation threshold for selection
operation and probability for crossover and mutation operation
were tested. It was found that when truncation threshold was 0.3,
crossover probability was 0.8, and mutation probability was 0.1, a
better performance could be achieved.
For this case problem, a number of experiments were carried
out to test the performance of proposed method for different
population sizes. In the experiments, we simply set ω1 = ω2 =
ω3 = 1 for the fitness function P (Wi ) = ω1 α + ω2 β + ω3 γ .
For computational efficiency, generally, the algorithm converged
quickly, and a solution was found within 5 s as shown in Fig. 6.
However, the convergence time was dependent on the population
size, as shown in Fig. 6. When the population size was less than
200, the convergence time decreased as the size increased. The

600 IEEJ Trans 11: 593–603 (2016)

 A GENETIC ALGORITHM APPROACH TO SHORT-TERM SCHEDULING

5000 Table II. One of the chromosomes whose fitness value is 18

4500 a1 a2 a3 a4 a5 a6 a7 a8 a9 a10 a11 a12
4000
2 2 1 3 3 3 3 3 0 0 0 0
3500 α=4 β=2 γ = 12
Convergence time (ms)

3000

2500
DS1 TK1 TK2 TK6 TK10
2000 #1
#2
1500 DS2 TK8 TK7 TK4 TK9
#3
#4
1000 DS3 TK3 TK5 TK8 TK1 TK3 TK7 TK5
#5
500 #6
Pipeline TK4 TK9 TK10 TK8 TK1 TK3 TK7 TK
5

0 Time(h)
10 50 100 200 500 1000 10 000 0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160 180 200 220 240
Population size
Fig. 9. Gantt chart of the detailed schedule for the case study
Fig. 6. Population size versus convergence time
In the sense of solution quality, for a different population size
Best value Worst value Average value and different selection methods, when the algorithm terminates,
40 the same fitness function value P (Wi ) = 18 is achieved, though
different schedules may be obtained. One of the chromosomes
35
whose fitness value is 18, the best one found by the proposed
30 method, is shown in Table II. Also, the corresponding optimal
values of α, β, and γ are shown in Table II.
Fitness value

25
The Gantt chart of the corresponding detailed schedule is shown
20
in Fig. 9, including the detailed schedule of distiller feeding and
15 charging tank filling through the pipeline, where different colors
10
represent different oil types.
By using the schedulability conditions, a feasible detailed
5 schedule can be found to realize the refining schedule in Ref. [27].
0 The objective is P (Wi ) = 21 for the schedule obtained in
0 20 40 60
Ref. [27]. This implies that, by using the proposed GA method,
Generation
the performance is improved by (21–18)/21 ≈ 14%. This is a
Fig. 7. Fitness value by using truncation selection significant improvement.
This case study shows that, given a realizable refining schedule,
a satisfactory detailed schedule can be efficiently found by the
Best value Worst value Average value
proposed GA method. It should be pointed out that this case study
40 is a practical scenario and it is typical in real-life application. This
35
shows that the proposed GA method is applicable to real refineries.

30
6. Conclusions
Fitness value

25
20
15
10
5 a problem, the jobs (operations) to be scheduled should be defined
0 are very difficult to apply, and thus mathematical programming
0 20
Generation
Fig. 8. Fitness value by using stochastic universal sampling
shortest convergence time occurred when population size was 200.
When the population size was greater than 200, the convergence
time increased as the size increased.
With the population size of 200, we carried out the experiment
using the truncation selection and stochastic universal sampling,
respectively. The trends of the best, worst, and average fitness
values with respect to the number of generations are shown in
Figs. 7 and 8, respectively. As shown in Fig. 7, the best fitness
value could not be updated after the ninth generation, and a
premature convergence happened when truncation selection was
applied. As shown in Fig. 8, by using a stochastic universal
sampling, the best value remained unchanged after the 25th
generation. It shows the convergence of the proposed algorithm.
As one of the manufacturing systems, crude oil operations in a
refinery involve both discrete events and continuous processes and
are characterized by a hybrid system. With a discrete event pro-
cess, the short-term scheduling problem of crude oil operations is
inherently combinatorial and is NP-hard [6]. Furthermore, for such
during the scheduling process. Thus, heuristics and meta-heuristics
40 60
models are used to study it. By such models, however, one cannot
overcome the problem of computational complexity. To solve this
problem, the short-term scheduling problem of crude oil opera-
tions was studied from the control theory perspective by deriving
schedulability conditions [25,27,34,36]. Based on the schedulabil-
ity conditions, the problem could be decomposed into two subprob-
lems in a hierarchical way. Then, an efficient approach was pre-
sented to find the refining schedule at the upper level [31,37]. Also,
with the schedulability conditions, a feasible detailed schedule at
the lower level could be found recursively without optimizing any
objective [25,27,34]. In fact, for detailed scheduling, there are a
number of objectives to be optimized. These objectives include
(i) minimization of the number of COT switches in oil transporta-
tion via a pipeline; (ii) minimization of COT mixing in charging
and discharging a tank; and (iii) minimization of the number of
charging tank switches in crude oil feeding. To optimize a detailed
schedule, the detailed scheduling problem was transformed into

601 IEEJ Trans 11: 593–603 (2016)

 Y. HOU, N. WU, AND Z. LI
charging tank assignment and sequencing problem. Then, a method
was proposed to generate a feasible initial schedule such that the
initial population could be obtained. To do so, a GA method was
developed to solve the problem. With a practical case problem,
experiments showed that the proposed method works well.
This work focused on how to make GA applicable to the
scheduling problem of crude oil operations. How to improve the
performance of a GA is an important issue, which can be pursued
in future work.
The detailed scheduling problem of crude oil operations is
a multiobjective optimization problem. Nevertheless, this paper
transformed the multiple objectives into a single objective by
using a weighted function. Notice that these objectives may be not
consistent. Thus, it is meaningful to explore the effect of different
objectives. This is our future work.
Acknowledgments
This work was supported partly by the FDCT of Macau under Grants
065/2013/A2 and 078/2015/A3, and NSF of China under grant 61273036.
Nomenclature
OD: Operation decision.
COT: Crude oil type.
ξ : Volume of crude oil to be delivered by an OD.
S: Source device from which crude oil is to be transferred.
D: Destination to which oil is delivered.
INT = [a, b]: Time interval, with a and b being the start and
end time points of an operation.
ODU: OD for crude oil unloading.
ODT: OD for crude oil transportation via a pipeline.
ODF: OD for crude oil feeding to distillers.
[ρ, δ]: Time interval for ODU.
[λ, μ]: Time interval for ODT.
[ω, π ]: Time interval for ODF.
ODFki : The i th OD for feeding distiller k .
 = [τs , τe ]: Schedule horizon, where τs and τe are start and
end time, respectively.
g: Flow rate for tanker unloading.
f : Flow rate for pipeline transportation.
h: Flow rate for distiller feeding.
K : The number of distillers.
SCHD: Short-term schedule for crude oil operations.
w : The number of ODUs for a schedule.
z : The number of ODTs for a schedule.
FP: Feeding parcel of crude oil.
ζ : Volume of crude oil to be fed into a distiller.
[ε, η]: Time interval for feeding a parcel of crude oil.
FPij : The j th FP for feeding Distiller i .
RSi : Refining schedule for Distiller i .
DS: The set of distillers.
Fi (MIN ) : Permissible minimal flow rate for feeding Distiller i .
Fi (MAX ) : Permissible maximal flow rate for feeding Distiller i .
Z : System state.
ODFijm : The mth ODF serving for FPij .
: The oil residency time in tanks.
fpmax : The maximal flow rate of the pipeline.
fi : The feeding rate of Distiller i .
TKi : Tank i .
DSi : Distiller i .
Dk : The k th assignment choice.
: The number of routes in a K -tree.
Ni : The number of nodes on the i th route.
N : Length of the chromosome.
SDi : The set of distillers when the i th tank is released.
R: Population size.
602
Wi : The schedule corresponding to chromosome Xi .
P (Wi ): Fitness function of schedule Wi .
α: The number of different COTs in recharging the charging
tanks.
β: The number of COT switches in oil transportation via the
pipeline.
γ : The number of charging tank switches in distiller feeding.
φ: Truncation threshold.
p: Position in chromosome Yi and Xi .
TC: The set of charging tanks.
X = (a1 , a2 , . . . , ai , . . . , aN ): A chromosome, where ai ∈ DS.
E = (e1 , e2 , . . . , ei , . . . , eN ): An array with ei = 0 or 1.
Yi = (b1 , b2 , . . . , bi , . . . , bN ): A chromosome, where bi ∈ DS.
Hi = (ci 1 , ci 2 , . . . cii , . . . , ciN ): A chromosome,
where cii ∈ DS.
References
(1) Moro LFL. Process technology in the petroleum refining indus-
try—current situation and future trends. Computers and Chemical
Engineering 2003; 27(8):1303–1305.
(2) Aspen Technology Inc. PIMS System Reference, Version 11.0. Aspen
Technology Inc: Cambridge, MA; 1999.
(3) Bonner & Moore. RPMS (Refinery and Petrochemical Modeling
System): A System Descriptive. Bonner & Moore Management
Science: Houston, TX; 1979.
(4) Pelham R, Pharris C. Refinery operation and control: a future vision
Hydrocarbon Processing1996; 75(7):89–94.
(5) Honkomp SJ, Lombardo S, Rosen O, Pekny JF. The curse of real-
ity—why process scheduling optimization problems are difficult in
practice Computers and Chemical Engineering 2000; 24(2):323–328.
(6) Floudas CA, Lin XX. Continuous-time versus discrete-time appro-
aches for scheduling of chemical processes: a review. Computers
and Chemical Engineering 2004; 28(11):2109–2129.
(7) Wu NQ, Chu F, Chu CB, Zhou MC. Short-term schedulability anal-
ysis of crude oil operations in refinery with oil residency time
constraint using Petri net. IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man, and
Cybernetics, Part C 2008; 38(6):765–778.
(8) Glismann K, Gruhn G. Short-term scheduling and recipe optimization
of blending processes. Computers and Chemical Engineering2001;
25(4–6): 627–634.
(9) Kelly JD, Forbes JF. Structured approach to storage allocation
for improved process controllability. AIChE Journal 1998; 55(8):
1832–1840.
(10) Lee H, Pinto JM, Grossmann IE, Park S. Mixed-integer linear pro-
gramming model for refinery short-term scheduling of crude oil
unloading with inventory management. Industrial and Engineering
Chemical Research 1996; 35(5):1630–1641.
(11) Pinto JM, Joly M, Moro LFL. Planning and scheduling models for
refinery operations. Computers and Chemical Engineering 2000;
24(9–10): 2259–2276.
(12) Saharidis GKD, Minoux M, Dallery Y. Scheduling of loading and
unloading of crude oil in a refinery using event-based discrete
time formulation. Computers and Chemical Engineering 2009;
33(8):1413–1426.
(13) Shah N. Mathematical programming techniques for crude oil schedul-
ing. Computers and Chemical Engineering1996; 20:s1227–s1232.
(14) Yuzgec U, Palazoglu A, Romagnoli JA. Refinery scheduling of
crude oil unloading, storage and processing using a model predic-
tive control strategy. Computers and Chemical Engineering 2010;
34(10):1671–1686.
(15) Jia Z, Ierapetritou M, Kelly JD. Refinery short-term scheduling using
continuous time formulation: crude oil operations. Industrial and
Chemical Engineering Research 2003; 42(13):3085–3097.
(16) Jia Z, Ierapetritou M. Efficient short-term scheduling of refinery
operations based on a continuous time formulation. Computers and
Chemical Engineering 2004; 28(6–7):1001–1019.
(17) Karuppiah R, Furmanb KC,Grossmann IE. Global optimization for
scheduling refinery crude oil operations. Computers and Chemical
Engineering 2008; 32(11):2745–2766.
IEEJ Trans 11: 593–603 (2016)
 A GENETIC ALGORITHM APPROACH TO SHORT-TERM SCHEDULING
(18) Rejowski R, Jr., Pinto JM. A novel continuous time representa-
tion for the scheduling of pipeline systems with pumping yield
rate constraints. Computers and Chemical Engineering 2008; 32(4):
1042–1066.
(19) Zhen YJ, Marianthi I. Refinery short-term scheduling using continu-
ous time formulation: crude-oil operations. Industrial and Engineer-
ing Chemical Research 2003; 42(13):3085–3097.
(20) Mendez CA, Grossmann IE, Harjunkoski I, Kabore P. A simultane-
ous optimization approach for off-line blending and scheduling of
oil-refinery operations. Computers and Chemical Engineering 2006;
30(4):614–634.
(21) Wu NQ. Necessary and sufficient conditions for deadlock-free oper-
ation in flexible manufacturing systems using a colored Petri net
model. IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics, Part C
1999; 29(2):192–204.
(22) Wu NQ, Zhou MC. Avoiding deadlock and reducing starvation and
blocking in automated manufacturing systems based on a Petri
net model. IEEE Transactions on Robotics and Automation 2001;
17(5):658–669.
(23) Wu NQ, Zhou MC, Li ZW. Resource-oriented Petri net for deadlock
avoidance in flexible assembly systems. IEEE Transactions on
System, Man, & Cybernetics, Part A 2008; 38(1):56–69.
(24) Wu NQ, Zhou MC. System Modeling and Control with Resource-
Oriented Petri Nets. CRC Press, Taylor & Francis Group: New York;
2009.
(25) Wu NQ, Chu F, Chu CB, Zhou MC. Short-term schedulability anal-
ysis of multiple distiller crude oil operations in refinery with oil
residency time constraint. IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man, and
Cybernetics, Part C 2009; 39(1):1–16.
(26) Wu NQ, Chu F, Chu CB, Zhou MC. Tank cycling and schedul-
ing analysis of high fusion point oil transportation for crude oil
operations in refinery. Computers and Chemical Engineering 2010;
34(4):529–543.
(27) Wu NQ, Chu CB, Chu F, Zhou MC. Schedulability analysis of short-
term scheduling for crude oil operations in refinery with oil residency
time and charging-tank-switch-overlap constraints. IEEE Transac-
tions on Automation Science and Engineering 2011; 8(1):190–204.
(28) Wu NQ, Bai LP, Chu CB. Modeling and conflict detection of crude-
oil operations for refinery process based on controlled-colored-timed
Petri net. IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man, & Cybernetics, Part
C 2007; 37(4):461–472.
(29) Wu NQ, Chu F, Chu CB, Zhou MC. Hybrid Petri net modeling
and schedulability analysis of high fusion point oil transportation
under tank grouping strategy for crude oil operations in refinery.
IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics, Part C 2010;
40(2):159–175.
(30) Wu NQ, Zhou MC, Li ZW. Short-term scheduling of crude-oil oper-
ations: Petri net-based control-theoretic approach. IEEE Robotics and
Automation Magazine 2015; 22(2):64–76.
(31) Wu NQ, Bai LP, Zhou MC, Chu F, Mammar S. A novel approach to
optimization of refining schedules for crude oil operations in refinery.
IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics, Part C 2012;
42(6):1042–1053.
(32) Wu NQ, Zhou MC, Chu F. Short-term scheduling for refinery pro-
cess: bridging the gap between theory and applications. International
Journal of Intelligent Control and Systems 2005; 10(2):162–174.
(33) Shah NK, Li ZK, Ierapetritou MG. Petroleum refining operations:
key issues, advances, and opportunities. Industrial and Chemical
Engineering Research 2011; 50(3):1161–1170.
(34) Wu NQ, Zhou MC, Chu F. A petri net based heuristic algorithm for
realizability of target refining schedule for oil refinery. IEEE Trans-
actions on Automation Science and Engineering 2008; 5(4):661–676.
(35) Whitley D. A genetic algorithm tutorial. Statistics and Computing
1994; 4(2):65–85.
(36) Wu NQ, Zhou MC, Bai LP, Li ZW. Short-term scheduling of crude oil
operations in refinery with high fusion point oil and two transportation
pipelines, Enterprise Information Systems 2016; 10(6): 581–610.
(37) Wu NQ, Bai LP, Zhou MC. An efficient scheduling method for crude
oil operations in refinery with crude oil type mixing requirements,
IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man, & Cybernetics: Systems 2016;
46(3): 413–426.
603
Yan Hou (Non-member) received the B.S. and M.S. degrees, both
in computer science, from the Yangtze Univer-
sity, Jingzhou, China, in 1999 and 2002, respec-
tively; and the Ph. D degree in industrial engi-
neering from Guangdong University of Technol-
ogy (GDUT), Guangzhou, China in 2016. Since
2002, she has been with GDUT Guangzhou,
China. Her research interests include production scheduling, infor-
mation systems, and software engineering.
NaiQi Wu (Non-member) received the B.S. degree in electrical
engineering from the Huainan Institute of Min-
ing, Huainan, China, in 1982, and the M.S. and
Ph.D. degrees in systems engineering from the
Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an, China in 1985
and 1988, respectively. From 1988 to 1995, he
was with the Shenyang Institute of Automation,
Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenyang, China, and from 1995
to 1998 with the Shantou University, Shantou, China. He moved
to the Guangdong University of Technology, Guangzhou, China,
in 1998. He has been a Visiting Professor at the Arizona State
University and the New Jersey Institute of Technology, USA,
and the University of Technology of Troyes and the University
of Evry, France. He joined the Macau University of Science
and Technology (MUST), Taipa, Macau, in 2013. He is currently
a Professor at Macau Institute of Systems Engineering, MUST.
His research interests include production planning and scheduling,
manufacturing system modeling and control, discrete event sys-
tems, Petri net theory and applications, intelligent transportation
systems, and information assurance. He is the author or coauthor
of one book, five book chapters, and more than 130 peer-reviewed
journal papers. He was an associate editor of the IEEE Transac-
tions on Systems, Man, & Cybernetics, Part C, IEEE Transactions
on Automation Science and Engineering, IEEE Transactions on
Systems, Man, and Cybernetics: Systems, and editor-in-chief of
Industrial Engineering Journal. He has served many international
conferences as program committee member, such as the program
committee co-chair of the 2012 and chair of the 2013 IEEE Inter-
national Conference on Networking, Sensing and Control.
ZhiWu Li (Non-member) received the B.S., M.S., and Ph.D.
degrees in mechanical engineering, automatic
control, and manufacturing engineering, respec-
tively, from Xidian University, Xi’an, China, in
1989, 1992, and 1995, respectively. He joined
Xidian University in 1992 and now he is also
with Macau Institute of Systems Engineering,
Macau University of Science and Technology, Taipa, Macau.
Over the past decade, he was a Visiting Professor at the Univer-
sity of Toronto, Technion–Israel Institute of Technology, Martin-
Luther University of Halle–Wittenburg, Conservatoire National
des Arts et Métiers (CNAM), and Meliksah Universitesi. His cur-
rent research interests include Petri net theory and application,
supervisory control of discrete event systems, workflow model-
ing and analysis, system reconfiguration, game theory, and data
and process mining. Dr Li has been a member of Discrete Event
Systems Technical Committee of the IEEE Systems, Man, and
Cybernetics Society, and a member of IFAC Technical Commit-
tee on Discrete Event and Hybrid Systems from 2011 to 2014.
He serves as a frequent reviewer for 40+ international journals
including Automatica and a number of the IEEE Transactions as
well as many international conferences. He is listed in Marquis
Who’s Who in the world, 27th Edition, 2010. He is a recipient of
an Alexander von Humboldt Research Grant, Alexander von Hum-
boldt Foundation, Germany. He is a senior member of the IEEE
and is the founding chair of Xi’an Chapter of IEEE Systems, Man,
and Cybernetics Society.
IEEJ Trans 11: 593–603 (2016)