LNG bunkering infrastructure planning at port

Abstract

Ships are traditionally powered by fossil fuels such as heavy fuel oil (HFO) and marine diesel oil (MDO), where the emissions, such as particulates, hydrocarbons (HC), carbon monoxide (CO), nitrogen oxides (NO_X) and carbon dioxide (CO₂), negatively affect the environment and human health. The International Maritime Organization (IMO) encourages shipping companies to use liquefied natural gas (LNG), which is a green fuel source to power shipping activities and is easy to store, to replace traditional marine fuels. There are three common methods of LNG bunkering: ship-to-ship, truck-to-ship, and port-to-ship. The objective of this study is to determine the optimal bunkering method at a port using an integer linear programming (ILP) model considering three kinds of costs: fixed, variable, and extra. To find the optimal bunkering method, the three methods and their related constraints are modeled into the ILP model. The results indicate that ship-to-ship is the optimal bunkering method for LNG under the scenario of the port considered. Numerical experiments are conducted to validate model performance and generate managerial insights.