Systematic synthesis of cleaning procedures for pipeline networks using petri nets

Cleaning pipeline networks is a routine operation in almost every chemical plant. Our aim is to develop a systematic strategy to generate the needed operating procedures with Petri-net models. Specifically, the proper material-transfer routes are selected on the basis of the Petri-net representation of all possible paths. The equipment models are then attached to this path model according to network configuration to build a system model. By connecting the system model with a net representing the schedule manager, a recipe can be produced accordingly to achieve a multi-route sequential/ concurrent schedule. The effiectiveness of this approach is demonstrated with a realistic example.