The role of operational research in green freight transportation

Recent years have witnessed an increased awareness of the negative external impacts of freight transportation. The field of Operational Research (OR) has, particularly in the recent years, continued to contribute to alleviating the negative impacts through the use of various optimization models and solution techniques. This paper presents the basic principles behind and an overview of the existing body of recent research on ‘greening’ freight transportation using OR-based planning techniques. The particular focus is on studies that have been described for two heavily used modes for transporting freight across the globe, namely road (including urban and electric vehicles) and maritime transportation, although other modes are also briefly discussed

Assessing strategies for reducing carbon emissions associated with wood products transportation

Suite à la ratification par le Canada de traités de réduction des émissions de gaz à effets de serre (GES), différents paliers de gouvernement ont mis en œuvre des politiques visant la réduction des émissions industrielles et liées au transport. Depuis 2013, le Québec, conjointement avec la Californie et l’Ontario, ont mis en place un marché du carbone pour encourager les entreprises à réduire leurs émissions. L’industrie forestière, s’appuyant sur le transport de marchandises, pourrait bénéficier de ce régime en termes de prise de décision sur la planification du transport. Cette étude vise à analyser le potentiel des stratégies de réduction des émissions de carbone et à proposer des suggestions appropriées sur la prise de décision en matière de la planification du transport. Quatre stratégies sont principalement envisagées : la réduction de la vitesse, la conduite écologique, le transport intermodal et les modes de chargement. Combinant les stratégies, des modèles d'optimisation dont l'objectif est de minimiser des coûts sont développés sous les contraintes des émissions. Ces modèles impliquent la planification de la distribution de la gestion de la chaîne d'approvisionnement et des problèmes de tournées de véhicules. Microsoft Excel, OpenSolver, Gurobi et LocalSolver sont principalement utilisés pour la modélisation et l’optimisation. Un front de Pareto est par la suite utilisé pour illustrer la relation entre le coût de transport et les émissions de carbone. Pour démontrer les méthodologies, une étude de cas est présentée en utilisant des données réelles. Il est constaté que l'éco-conduite présente un potentiel de réduction des émissions intéressant dans une gamme réaliste d'augmentation des prix. Le choix des stratégies varie selon les préférences du décideur et la difficulté de mise en œuvre des stratégies.With the ratification of greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction agreements by Canada, various levels of government implemented policies to reduce transport-related and other industrial emissions. Since 2013, Québec, together with California and Ontario, has established a carbon market to encourage firms to reduce their emissions. The forest industry could benefit from this scheme in terms of improving efficiency and lessening the environmental impact of wood product transport. This study aims to assess the potential of carbon emission reduction strategies and to provide recommendations on improving the logistics of transporting wood-based materials. There are four main strategies considered in this paper; namely low-speed driving, eco-driving, intermodal transportation, and optimizing loading pattern. By combining these strategies, optimization models are developed with the objective of cost minimization under the constraints of emissions. These models involve the distribution planning of supply chain management and routing problems. Microsoft Excel, OpenSolver, Gurobi, and LocalSolver are mainly used for modeling and optimization. Pareto Front is also used to illustrate the relationship between transportation cost and carbon emission. To demonstrate the methodologies, a case study is exhibited using real world data. It is found that eco-driving has considerable potential in reducing emissions under a feasible range of price increases. The selection of strategies is based on the decision makers’ preferences and the difficulty of strategy implementation

Optimizing Urban Distribution Routes for Perishable Foods Considering Carbon Emission Reduction

The increasing demand for urban distribution increases the number of transportation vehicles which intensifies the congestion of urban traffic and leads to a lot of carbon emissions. This paper focuses on carbon emission reduction in urban distribution, taking perishable foods as the object. It carries out optimization analysis of urban distribution routes to explore the impact of low carbon policy on urban distribution routes planning. On the base of analysis of the cost components and corresponding constraints of urban distribution, two optimization models of urban distribution route with and without carbon emissions cost are constructed, and fuel quantity related to cost and carbon emissions in the model is calculated based on traffic speed, vehicle fuel quantity and passable time period of distribution. Then an improved algorithm which combines genetic algorithm and tabu search algorithm is designed to solve models. Moreover, an analysis of the influence of carbon tax price is also carried out. It is concluded that in the process of urban distribution based on the actual network information, the path optimization considering the low carbon factor can effectively reduce the distribution process of CO2, and reduce the total cost of the enterprise and society, thus achieving greater social benefits at a lower cost. In addition, the government can encourage low-carbon distribution by rationally adjusting the price of carbon tax to achieve a higher social benefit

A study on implementation of CO2 abatement solutions for existing ships

Recent high fuel prices and global economic recessions have driven shipowners to turn their attention to saving operational costs of their ships. For this reason, a variety of energy saving solutions has been developed and proposed in order to improve energy efficiency of ships. In addition, IMO have also proposed the best practices for energy saving solutions for existing ships through the SEEMP Guidelines. However, these proposed energy saving solutions (i.e. CO2 abatement solutions) do not give sufficient reliability due to the uncertainties of various parameters surrounding ships. These uncertainties may have a significant impact on effectiveness of individual energy saving solutions to a great extent, which include future fuel prices, mutually exclusive solutions, enforcement of SOx emission regulations, financial returns on investment of solutions. At present, these uncertainties prevent shipowners from employing the energy saving solutions. In particular, small companies suffer from lack of human resources and technical expertise in employing energy saving solutions to their ships. In this context, this dissertation analyzes reliability and availability of individual energy saving solutions for existing ships through analyzing specific challenges and effectiveness when implementing each of solutions. Finally, this dissertation proposes feasible measures to facilitate implementation of energy saving solutions

Development of voyage optimization algorithms for sustainable shipping and their impact to ship design

The environmental impacts from shipping and the societal challenges of human and property losses caused by ship accidents are pressuring the shipping industry to improve its energy efficiency and enhance ship safety. Voyage optimization is such an effective measure that has been widely adopted in today’s shipping market. The voyage optimization algorithm is the dominant part of any voyage optimization methods. The main objective of this thesis is to develop sophisticated voyage optimization algorithms, explore their applications to sustainable ship operations, and study its impact on ship fatigue design.In this thesis, five commonly used voyage optimization algorithms are first implemented and compared to provide a foundation for understanding optimization algorithms. A three-dimensional Dijkstra’s algorithm is then developed with further improvement based on the comparison. It can provide globally optimal solutions and conducting multi-objective voyage optimization. An engine-power based multi-objective optimization algorithm is proposed for the aid of ship operations with power-setting in their navigation system. Furthermore, the influence of the uncertainties from voyage optimization inputs, e.g., metocean forecast, implemented ship performance models and voyage optimization algorithms, on the optimization results is investigated. Moreover, the capabilities of the proposed voyage optimization algorithms to handle other optimization objectives, i.e., less fatigue damage accumulation and lower fatigue crack propagation rate, is also investigated. Meanwhile, two statistical wave models are compared to study the variation of a ship’s encountered wave environment for ship fatigue design. The impact of voyage optimization aided operations on a ship’s encountered wave environments and fatigue life assessment is also researched in this thesis. The three-dimensional Dijkstra’s algorithm addresses the limitations of conventional voyage optimization algorithms and allows for voluntary speed variation. It has a great potential of saving fuel up to about 12% in comparison with the case study ship’s actual sailing routes. The ship engine setting-based optimization algorithm provides a scheme based on a genetic algorithm and dynamic programming concept. It has the potential to save fuel up to approximately 14.5% compared to the actual sailing routes. This study also shows that metocean uncertainties in the voyage optimization process have great influence on the optimization results, i.e., 3-10% difference in fuel consumption for the same voyage optimization method. In addition, statistical wave models have been proven to capture ship-encountered wave statistics. It is also shown that the actual wave environments encountered by ships differ significantly from the wave scatter diagram provided by class guidelines. A good voyage optimization method can help to extend a ship’s fatigue life by at least 50%.Keywords: Dijkstra’s algorithm; Energy efficiency; Expected time of arrival (ETA); Genetic algorithm; Metocean forecast; Ship safety; Sustainable shipping; Voyage optimization algorithms

Biofuel as an alternative shipping fuel : technological, environmental and economic assessment

© Royal Society of Chemistry 2019Fossil derived fuels available for application within the maritime sector have been dominated by heavy fuel oil (HFO), which is conventionally used in low speed (main) engines, and more refined fuels such as marine diesel oil (MDO), which is consumed in fast or medium speed engines. However, increasing fuel costs and regulatory pressure such as the restrictions placed on sulphur content have increased interest in the use of alternative fuels. A number of alternative fuels have been identified and may be viable for use within the maritime sector including straight vegetable oil (SVO) as an alternative to HFO in low speed engines, biodiesel to replace MDO/MGO in low to medium speed engines and bio-liquefied natural gas (bio-LNG) in gas engines using LNG. The potential sources of biomass feedstocks, conversion pathways and technologies are identified. The key parameters limiting their potential application are examined, in particular, availability, technological development, technical integration, and operational consequences. A proposed solution to overcome these limitations is recommended. The effective implementation of these strategies will enable the more widespread use of biofuels in marine applications, significantly reducing emissions from ships and improving global air quality and also protecting the ecological environment.Peer reviewe

Can Air Quality be Influenced in Coastal Areas by Shipping?

The problem of pollution is a topical issue at global, regional but also at the local level. Starting from this idea, the question arises whether the coastal region in the North-East of the Black Sea is affected by the emissions resulting from the combustion of marine fuels in large ship engines, which manage to set in motion floating buildings intended for the transport of goods and passengers. This paper wants to evaluate the variation of the air quality indicators in the coastal area of Romania, taking into account the contribution that the ships by their number, size and destination can have on these qualitative factors. Such an approach is needed from the perspective of the more than 500,000 inhabitants possibly affected by the effects with which this industry is accompanied. As the Black Sea active fleet is already old, as its ages year by year, the premises for the need for this study can be set up. As in other regions, drastic measures are taken in order to reduce the effects of pollution due to such economic activity, the assessment of the effects that this industry produces in inhabited areas becomes necessary. In order to carry out this study, air quality data from the database provided by the National Air Quality Monitoring Network of the Workshop on the calitateaer.ro site were evaluated