Optimizing ship speed to minimize fuel consumption

Abstract

Owing to high fuel costs and environmental regulations, the optimization of ship speed to minimize fuel consumption and reduce carbon emissions has become a hot issue in the maritime industry. In this paper, we study the sailing speed optimization problem for a ship operating on a route having a specified sequence of calling ports with time windows for calling time. The considered problem can be formulated as a non-linear program. We derive the intrinsic properties of the problem and develop an optimal algorithm based on the properties. Computational experiments show that the developed algorithm in this paper is efficient in finding an optimal solution.

Keywords:

• Ship speed
• Fuel consumption
• Carbon emissions
• Nonlinear program
• Optimal algorithm

Acknowledgement

This work was supported by the Incheon National University (International Cooperative) Research Grant in 2011.