TY - JOUR
T1 - Decarbonizing shipping in ice by intelligent icebreaking assistance
T2 - A case study of the Finnish-Swedish winter navigation system
AU - Kondratenko, Aleksander A.
AU - Kulkarni, Ketki
AU - Li, Fang
AU - Musharraf, Mashrura
AU - Hirdaris, Spyros
AU - Kujala, Pentti
N1 - Funding Information:
The present research is supported by the Winter Navigation Research Board – a Finnish-Swedish cooperation co-funded by the Finnish Transport and Communications Agency , the Finnish Transport Infrastructure Agency , the Swedish Maritime Administration , and the Swedish Transport Agency under the projects WinterSim and W22-1 SIMNAV. Authors 2 and 4 are supported by the Academy of Finland project: Towards human-centered intelligent ships for winter navigation (Decision number: 351491 ).
Publisher Copyright:
© 2023 The Authors
PY - 2023/10/15
Y1 - 2023/10/15
N2 - Ice often complicates shipping in extremely cold regions, leading to energy-consuming, expensive transportation. Ship performance can be significantly improved with icebreaking assistance that uses specialized ships called icebreakers to create navigable pathways in ice fields. Icebreakers are a critical and expensive resource with high energy consumption that must be judiciously utilized for efficient traffic flow. Optimizing icebreaker usage requires careful consideration of multiple factors related to weather, ships, and regulations. The existing decision support tools for icebreaker management primarily aim to minimize the total waiting time of ships, which may result in allocation of excess icebreakers. The paper presents a novel simulation-based approach for decarbonizing shipping in ice by intelligent icebreaking assistance. The proposed approach optimizes icebreaker assistance for both eco- and cost efficiency, allowing for more sustainable icebreaking policies. A case study representing a simplified configuration of the Finnish-Swedish Winter Navigation System demonstrates this approach to come up with alternate operating strategies that can significantly improve the emission and/or cost (e.g., up to 7 percent less greenhouse gas emission or up to 14.2% lower costs). Results show that the proposed approach is promising, for providing recommendations on environmental and economic policies to decarbonize the Finnish-Swedish icebreaking assistance.
AB - Ice often complicates shipping in extremely cold regions, leading to energy-consuming, expensive transportation. Ship performance can be significantly improved with icebreaking assistance that uses specialized ships called icebreakers to create navigable pathways in ice fields. Icebreakers are a critical and expensive resource with high energy consumption that must be judiciously utilized for efficient traffic flow. Optimizing icebreaker usage requires careful consideration of multiple factors related to weather, ships, and regulations. The existing decision support tools for icebreaker management primarily aim to minimize the total waiting time of ships, which may result in allocation of excess icebreakers. The paper presents a novel simulation-based approach for decarbonizing shipping in ice by intelligent icebreaking assistance. The proposed approach optimizes icebreaker assistance for both eco- and cost efficiency, allowing for more sustainable icebreaking policies. A case study representing a simplified configuration of the Finnish-Swedish Winter Navigation System demonstrates this approach to come up with alternate operating strategies that can significantly improve the emission and/or cost (e.g., up to 7 percent less greenhouse gas emission or up to 14.2% lower costs). Results show that the proposed approach is promising, for providing recommendations on environmental and economic policies to decarbonize the Finnish-Swedish icebreaking assistance.
KW - 214 Mechanical engineering
KW - Baltic sea
KW - Decarbonization
KW - Discrete-event simulation
KW - Greenhouse gas
KW - Icebreakers
KW - Maritime transport
KW - Sustainability
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85168813785&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.oceaneng.2023.115652
DO - 10.1016/j.oceaneng.2023.115652
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85168813785
SN - 0029-8018
VL - 286
JO - Ocean Engineering
JF - Ocean Engineering
M1 - 115652
ER -
