7. Çerçeve Programı Projesi, 2013 - 2017
Sea transport is a
vital component of the world’s economy as the largest carrier of freight around
the globe. Marine shipping is responsible for about 3.3% of the global
greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. International Maritime Organization in 2009 has
set the target for 15% reduction in the maritime emissions by 2018. This
requirement calls for further research into minimising carbon footprint of
marine shipping through collaboration between industry and academia. The
MINI-CHIP project aims to respond to this call in a timely manner. Earlier
research on reducing carbon footprint of marine shipping has regarded GHG
emissions as an implicit objective surrogated by fuel consumption and cost
which could be combined with other items (such as penalty charges). It would be
more illuminating for shipping companies to analyse trade-offs in the
operational decisions including energy consumption and GHG emissions as
explicit decision criteria. Such approach will support informed decision making
through assessing the environmental impact of the operational decisions in
maritime transport. To the best of our knowledge, no prior research has
addressed minimising carbon footprint of marine shipping as an explicit
objective alongside service level and cost objectives in a stochastic
environment. MINI-CHIP project aims to address this gap by developing
mathematical formulations of marine shipping operations as a stochastic
optimisation problem to minimise carbon footprint whilst optimising service
level and cost. Novel metaheuristic search techniques and simulation models
will be developed within a simulation-optimisation framework. The innovative
solution techniques will form the core of a decision support tool for
industrial applications. The prospective decision support tool will help
reducing environmental impact and contributing to economic prosperity of marine
shipping in Europe and around the world and contribute to the transition of
Europe to low carbon economy.