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5.5 Linear Programming

Linear programming is the minimization (or maximization) of a linear objective subject to linear constraints. There are several widely adopted schemes for representing linear programming problems. Here we adopt a scheme corresponding where the linear objective is written in terms of decision variables $x_1, x_2, \ldots, x_N$ as

\begin{align} \min_{x_1, x_1, \ldots, x_N} c_1x_1 + c_2x_2 + \cdots + c_Nx_N \end{align}

subject to

\begin{align} x_i \geq 0 & \qquad i=1,\ldots,N\quad\mbox{lower bounds on decision variables}\\ \sum_{j=1}^N a^{ub}_{ij}x_j \leq b^{ub}_i & \qquad i=1,\ldots,M_{ub}\quad\mbox{upper bound constraints} \\ \sum_{j=1}^N a^{eq}_{ij}x_j = b^{eq}_i & \qquad i=1,\ldots,M_{eq}\quad\mbox{equality constraints}\\ \end{align}

5.5.1 Matrix/Vector format

The notation can be simplified by adopting a matrix/vector formulation where

\begin{align} \min_{x\geq 0} c^T x \end{align}

subject to

\begin{align} A_{ub} x \leq b_{ub} \\ A_{eq} x = b_{eq} \end{align}

where $c$, $A_{ub}, b_{ub}$, and $A_{eq}, b_{eq}$, are vectors and matrices of coefficients constructed from the linear expressions given above.

5.5.2 Example 19.3: Refinery Blending Problem

The decision variables are

Variable Description Units
$x_1$ crude #1 bbl/day
$x_2$ crude #2 bbl/day
$x_3$ gasoline bbl/day
$x_4$ kerosine bbl/day
$x_5$ fuel oil bbl/day
$x_6$ residual bbl/day

The overall objective is to maximize profit

\begin{align} \mbox{profit} & = \mbox{income} - \mbox{raw_material_cost} - \mbox{processing_cost} \end{align}

where the financial components are given by

\begin{align} \mbox{income} & = 72x_3 + 48x_4 + 42x_5 + 20x_6 \\ \mbox{raw_material_cost} & = 48x_1 + 30x_2 \\ \mbox{processing_cost} & = 1 x_1 + 2x_2 \end{align}

Combining these terms, the objective is to maximize

\begin{align} f & = c^T x = - 49 x_1 - 32 x_2 + 72 x_3 + 48x_4 + 42x_5 + 20x_6 \end{align}

The material balance equations are

\begin{align} \mbox{gasoline: } x_3 & = 0.80 x_1 + 0.44 x_2 \\ \mbox{kerosine: } x_4 & = 0.05 x_1 + 0.10 x_2 \\ \mbox{fuel oil: } x_5 & = 0.10 x_1 + 0.36 x_2 \\ \mbox{residual: } x_6 & = 0.05 x_1 + 0.10 x_2 \end{align}

Production limits

\begin{align} \mbox{gasoline: } x_3 & \leq 24,000 \\ \mbox{kerosine: } x_4 & \leq 2,000 \\ \mbox{fuel oil: } x_5 & \leq 6,000 \end{align}\begin{align} \underbrace{\left[\begin{array}{cccccc} 0.80 & 0.44 & -1 & 0 & 0 & 0 \\ 0.05 & 0.10 & 0 & -1 & 0 & 0 \\ 0.10 & 0.36 & 0 & 0 & -1 & 0 \\ 0.05 & 0.10 & 0 & 0 & 0 & -1 \end{array}\right]}_{A_{eq}} \left[\begin{array}{c} x_1 \\ x_2 \\ x_3 \\ x_4 \\ x_5 \\ x_6 \end{array}\right] & = \underbrace{\left[\begin{array}{c} 0 \\ 0 \\ 0 \\ 0 \end{array}\right]}_{b_{eq}} \end{align}

< 5.4 Gasoline Blending | Contents | Tag Index | 5.6 Design of a Cold Weather Fuel >

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