IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v17y2025i12p5556-d1680633.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Cold Ironing Impact on Voyage Carbon Intensity in Container Shipping: Economic and Regulatory Insights

Author

Listed:
  • Coşkan Sevgili

    (Department of Maritime Transportation and Management Engineering, Zonguldak Bulent Ecevit University, 67100 Zonguldak, Türkiye)

  • Murat Bayraktar

    (Department of Marine Engineering, Zonguldak Bulent Ecevit University, 67300 Zonguldak, Türkiye)

  • Alper Seyhan

    (Department of Maritime Transportation and Management Engineering, Zonguldak Bulent Ecevit University, 67100 Zonguldak, Türkiye)

  • Onur Yuksel

    (Department of Marine Engineering, Zonguldak Bulent Ecevit University, 67300 Zonguldak, Türkiye
    Liverpool Logistics Offshore and Marine Research Institute (LOOM), Faculty of Engineering, Liverpool John Moores University, Liverpool L3 3AF, UK)

Abstract

The Carbon Intensity Indicator (CII) plays a critical role in assessing vessel efficiency. This study examines the impact of cold ironing (CI) on CII performance by analyzing 183 voyages of container ships. The research evaluates the attained CII values, CII ratings, and a Levelized Cost of Energy (LCOE) under different voyage data of container ships between 2023 and 2030. Results show that while 90.7% of voyages met the CII reference value in 2023, this rate decreased to 68.9% and 19.7% by 2026 and 2030, underscoring the increasing challenge of regulatory compliance, if no energy efficiency measures can be taken. Seasonal variations significantly influenced the CII, especially in March and May. With the implementation of CI on container ships, 6441.95 tons of heavy fuel oil and 6101.77 tons of marine gas oil consumption have been eliminated during port stays based on voyage data. Economic analysis indicates that CI increases the LCOE by 13.76%–19.65%, with a discounted payback period ranging from 4.69 to 24 years. This study highlights CI as a viable short-term measure for reducing maritime emissions and enhancing CII compliance, emphasizing the need for optimized economic models.

Suggested Citation

  • Coşkan Sevgili & Murat Bayraktar & Alper Seyhan & Onur Yuksel, 2025. "Cold Ironing Impact on Voyage Carbon Intensity in Container Shipping: Economic and Regulatory Insights," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 17(12), pages 1-24, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:17:y:2025:i:12:p:5556-:d:1680633
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/17/12/5556/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/17/12/5556/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:17:y:2025:i:12:p:5556-:d:1680633. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.