Berth and quay-crane allocation problem considering fuel consumption and emissions from vessels

Resolving the berth and quay-crane allocation problem improves the efficiency of seaside operations by optimally allocating berthing spaces and quay cranes to vessels, typically by considering a vessel’s sailing speed and arrival time at a port as constant parameters, while ignoring the impact of arrival times on fuel consumption and emissions when sailing. This work applied a novel nonlinear multi-objective mixed-integer programming model that considered a vessel’s fuel consumption and emissions, and then transformed this model into a second-order mixed-integer cone programming model to solve the problem’s computational intractability. Furthermore, the impact of number of allocated quay cranes on port operational cost, and a vessel’s fuel consumption and emissions was analyzed. Additionally, a vessel’s emissions while moored are also calculated based on wait time. Experimental results demonstrate that the new berth and quay-crane allocation strategy with a vessel’s arrival time as a decision variable can significantly improve vessels’ fuel consumption and emissions, the air quality around ports and utilization of berths and quay cranes without reducing service quality.