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Column generation approach for the problem of integrated operations in a container terminal under carbon emission tax

Author

Listed:
  • Wang, Tingsong
  • Gao, Guangxu
  • Zhen, Lu
  • Cheng, Peiyue
  • Jiang, Mingzhu

Abstract

The International Maritime Organization (IMO) has proposed to impose carbon emission tax on ports to reduce their carbon emission and sustain the green development of maritime industry. Carbon emission at a container terminal is mainly from two sources: one is from vessels moored at the terminal, and another is from equipment to stevedore containers, like quay cranes (QCs) on quay-side platform, yard cranes (YCs) at yard, and trucks to transport containers. The berth allocation, QC/YC assignment, truck deployment and subblock reservation are the operations for vessels to moor and stevedore containers, and they mutually interact with each other, which consequently affect the stevedoring efficiency and the carbon emission. Particularly, QCs usually require routine maintenance for operational safety. Therefore, to explore this challenge problem encountered by port operators, this paper tries to integrate operations with QC maintenance under carbon emission tax, and formulates it as a mixed-integer nonlinear programming model. To solve the model on large-scale instances, a column generation (CG) based approach is developed. Finally, numerical experiments are conducted to verify the effectiveness of the proposed models and solution approach. The results indicate that the carbon taxation policy has significant impact on integrated operation plans, and can significantly reduce the carbon emission. Also, we compare the effects of stepwise and unitary carbon taxation policies on carbon emission reduction, and find the former performs better than the latter. In addition, computation results show that the proposed CG based approach has better performance compared with commercial solvers.

Suggested Citation

  • Wang, Tingsong & Gao, Guangxu & Zhen, Lu & Cheng, Peiyue & Jiang, Mingzhu, 2025. "Column generation approach for the problem of integrated operations in a container terminal under carbon emission tax," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 201(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:transe:v:201:y:2025:i:c:s1366554525003114
    DOI: 10.1016/j.tre.2025.104270
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    References listed on IDEAS

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