Ship route optimization to enable the just-in-time arrival at a port

Abstract

With globalization, we are able to purchase products from across the world, and have it delivered to our doorstep. As these products travel further, more fuel is consumed, and this results in additional greenhouse gas emissions. It is thus important to ensure that the costs of shipments remain economical and the environmental costs involved in the shipment of these products is limited. The shipment and environmental costs could potentially be limited by having an effective ship route planning that results in the reduction in ship fuel consumption. The cost savings from this reduction in fuel consumption could potentially be passed on to the consumers, and the contribution to greenhouse gases would potentially be minimized with an optimized ship route. It is therefore important to have an effective route planning of the ship to minimize the fuel consumption. In this report, the various techniques involved in route optimizations are reviewed, and an optimization method in selecting the optimal ship route would be recommended. Given that weather conditions and its effects on the fuel consumption of ships cannot be neglected, the various added resistance in waves are discussed in this report, and a Python program for ship operators to utilize in their ship route planning by providing contour plots of the various added resistances would be developed. In this report, the program would be utilized to perform the analysis and to generate the contour plots of the various added resistance in waves for multiple bulk carriers and tankers. The strengths and limitations of this program would then be discussed.