Search Results (347)

The maritime sector is increasingly focused on green propulsion technologies to address stringent regulations on greenhouse gas emissions and other pollutants. In recent years, research has proposed novel electric and hybrid propulsion architectures and advanced energy management systems. This paper reviews the fundamentals and the most recent developments of hybrid and electric propulsion technologies, evaluating their environmental and economic implications. Particular attention is given to the various onboard energy storage, conversion, and generation technologies, outlining their potential and limitations. Through the analysis of numerous research studies in alternative marine propulsion, the suitability of Li-ion batteries, supercapacitors, flywheels, and different types of fuel cells for maritime transport needs is evaluated, along with the possibilities offered by renewable energy to reduce the environmental impact of marine energy systems. Additionally, it discusses important future directions, research gaps, and emerging paradigms in sustaining maritime eco-systems. Unlike previous reviews that mainly focus on individual technologies, this study provides an integrated analysis connecting propulsion architectures, energy storage systems, fuel cells, alternative fuels, renewable energy integration, and energy management strategies. The review also discusses technology limitations, operational suitability for different vessel categories, and future research challenges toward maritime decarbonization. In presenting these issues, the author’s intention is to promote interdisciplinary cooperation between shipbuilders, policymakers, and researchers for the benefit of more sustainable development of the maritime industry. Full article

Port-related maritime emissions constitute a significant source of urban air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions, particularly in rapidly developing coastal cities. Within this context, the present study quantifies ship-related emissions at the Port of Casablanca, Morocco’s largest and most strategically important port, and evaluates their associated environmental and socio-economic impacts. A bottom-up methodology was applied to estimate emissions from vessel operations between 2017 and 2021. The inventory integrates vessel characteristics, engine specifications, operational load factors, emission factors, and the duration of maneuvering and hotelling phases to estimate emissions of CO₂, SO₂, NO_x, CO, NMVOCs, PM, PM₁₀, and PM_2.5. The emission inventory was subsequently coupled with damage cost factors to assess the external costs associated with shipping emissions. The obtained results demonstrate that CO₂ was the dominant emitted pollutant, representing approximately 97% of total emissions, whereas NO_x and SO₂ accounted for 2% and 1%, respectively. Bulk carriers emerged as the principal emission source (44%), followed by container vessels (36%), with the highest emission levels observed during 2018–2019, coinciding with increased port operations. Furthermore, the integration of emission inventories with damage cost factors demonstrated that NO_x, although emitted in much smaller quantities than CO₂, exerts a disproportionately higher environmental and societal burden due to its impacts on public health and ecosystem quality. This study provides one of the first integrated bottom-up emission inventories and external cost assessments for a Moroccan port. The proposed framework supports evidence-based decision-making for sustainable port management and demonstrates the need for emission reduction strategies that simultaneously address climate change and air quality objectives. Full article

Port–hinterland links are a major driver of performance in maritime supply chains, affecting landed cost, service reliability and environmental outcomes. Yet research on ports and inland freight remains fragmented across transport geography, logistics, operations research and governance studies. This review consolidates evidence on how physical, operational, governance and digital integration levers shape supply chain outcomes at the port–hinterland interface. A Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA)-informed protocol was applied to Web of Science Core Collection records retrieved with a title-level port–hinterland query, last updated on 23 November 2025. The qualitative synthesis covers 90 peer-reviewed studies published from 2008 to 2026. Four eligible records (IN22, IN30, IN54 and IN83) could not be retrieved as full texts and are excluded from the qualitative synthesis; their metadata are retained only in the 94-record bibliometric keyword layer. The review traces the evolution from spatial and administrative views of hinterlands toward functional, network-based and actor-centred perspectives, and synthesises seven streams: delimitation and port choice, corridor competition, dry ports and extended gates, coordination and governance, multimodal operations, digitalisation, and sustainability and resilience. It proposes a four-layer conceptual framework linking infrastructure, services, governance and information integration to cost, reliability, capacity, emissions and resilience. The evidence base remains dominated by model-based studies that offer limited causal identification, supporting a focused agenda for more empirically grounded port–hinterland supply chain research. Full article

Coastal shipping systems experience complex functional degradation and recovery under port congestion, extreme weather, channel restrictions, and environmental constraints. To support sustainable maritime governance and port management, this paper proposes an AIS–MRV consistency-enhanced dynamic network assessment framework. The framework converts vessel trajectories into a dynamic maritime traffic network composed of ports, anchorages, fairways, and traffic corridors, and it constructs normal-state baselines by region, time window, and vessel type. It jointly measures system functionality, resilience loss, recovery time, network efficiency, anchorage congestion, route deviation, and an AIS-derived green operational penalty. It also compares AIS-derived green activity proxies with MRV annual CO₂ reports to assess external consistency. The short-term real-AIS experiment identifies 70 traffic nodes and produces comparable functionality curves and Resilience–Green Index values for five representative port regions. The DGX full-year AIS baseline experiment processes 365 daily AIS files and generates 22.76 million vessel-hour records. Under network-parameter perturbations, the Spearman correlations of the $Q^{*}$ time series range from 0.900 to 1.000, and the Spearman correlation of the five-region RGI ranking remains 1.000. The Los Angeles/Long Beach event window shows a standardized functionality difference of −0.076 relative to spatial controls, with a bootstrap 95% confidence interval of [−0.090, −0.023]. The five regions show an index range of 0.3168–0.8391, and Puget Sound remains the top-ranked region in 86.27% of 10,000 random weight perturbations. The MRV consistency test indicates a moderate positive correlation between the AIS vessel-size proxy and annual CO₂ emissions, while the size-weighted AIS activity proxy is also positively correlated with reported emissions. The framework provides a reproducible basis for identifying vulnerable shipping segments, assessing traffic recovery, and supporting port management, congestion governance, and green shipping decisions. Full article

Green methanol is widely regarded as a technically feasible low-carbon marine fuel for sustainable shipping in the medium term, but its economic viability remains constrained by fuel price and supply-scale uncertainty. This study develops a dynamic total cost of ownership (TCO) model for a methanol dual-fuel container ship with a nominal capacity of 15,000 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) operating on the Ningbo–Zhoushan–Valencia green shipping corridor. The model integrates capital expenditure, operating expenditure, fuel costs, European Union Emissions Trading System (EU ETS) carbon costs, FuelEU Maritime compliance costs, and green premium revenue. It evaluates a 15-year baseline, 25- and 30-year extensions, speed scenarios, probabilistic parameter uncertainty, and purchase-versus-charter thresholds. Under baseline assumptions (carbon price of 73.5 EUR/tCO2 and green methanol price of 1500 USD/t), the 15-year present-value cost of the green methanol case is 134.4% higher than that of the very low sulfur fuel oil (VLSFO) case. Annual costs may cross in 2045, 2040, and 2037 under baseline, optimistic, and accelerated decarbonization scenarios, respectively, but cumulative discounted cost advantage is not achieved within 30 years. Across 5000 Monte Carlo simulations, the probability of cumulative methanol cost advantage is 0% at 15, 25, and 30 years; methanol price and its decline rate remain the dominant uncertainty drivers. Slower speeds reduce the absolute cost gap but do not reverse the fuel ranking. These results show that carbon pricing or green premium revenue alone cannot close the corridor-level cost gap under the tested conditions. They also provide corridor-level evidence for methanol procurement, bunkering-capacity planning, and coordination among ship operators, ports, fuel suppliers, and cargo owners. Shipowners and port planners can update the framework as fuel prices, policy parameters, and bunkering conditions change. Full article

This study presents a field-informed simulation-based decision-support framework for improving transportation operations within the Port Said–Port Fouad bridge–ferry crossing corridor in Egypt. The investigated corridor represents an interruption-sensitive multimodal transportation system where traffic performance is strongly influenced by maritime navigation activity, bridge-closure events, ferry batch-service operations, fluctuating travel demand, and adaptive traveler behavior. The proposed framework integrates AIS-assisted operational characterization, SUMO-based microscopic traffic simulation, adaptive traveler redistribution, congestion-spillback analysis, XGBoost surrogate modeling, and multi-objective optimization within a unified analytical environment. AIS data were used to identify representative vessel-passage events and bridge-closure periods that supported field calibration of the simulation framework. The methodology explicitly represents bridge-capacity interruptions, ferry operational constraints, multimodal demand redistribution, and corridor-wide congestion dynamics. To reduce the computational burden associated with repeated simulation evaluations, an XGBoost surrogate model was developed to estimate key performance indicators, including transportation delay, vehicle accumulation, ferry waiting time, emissions, and spillback severity. The surrogate model achieved strong predictive performance with a coefficient of determination of R² = 0.965. Model calibration and within-sample validation were conducted using operational observations collected during a six-day field campaign. The within-sample validation results demonstrated satisfactory agreement between observed and simulated conditions, with an average relative error of approximately 4.8% across major performance indicators. Comparative analyses were performed under existing-operation, rule-based, optimization-based, and adaptive-control scenarios. The results indicate that the proposed framework reduced total transportation delay by 43.8%, peak corridor-wide vehicle accumulation by 65.9%, and estimated CO₂ emissions by 17.4% relative to existing operating conditions. In addition, the framework maintained stable performance under increased demand levels and prolonged bridge-interruption scenarios. Overall, the findings demonstrate the potential of simulation-informed decision support and surrogate-assisted optimization for improving operational efficiency, congestion resilience, and environmental sustainability within interruption-sensitive bridge–ferry transportation systems. Full article

Maritime transport, responsible for over 90% of global trade, is a significant contributor to greenhouse gas emissions due to its reliance on fossil fuels. Achieving international decarbonization targets set by the International Maritime Organization and the European Green Deal requires not only advancements in vessel technologies but also the sustainable transformation of port infrastructures. In this context, this study examines current trends in shore-to-ship (STS) charging technologies as a key enabler of sustainable port electrification. It provides a comprehensive review of AC, DC, and hybrid charging architectures, along with recent developments in robotic and autonomous charging systems. The study also explores industrial standards and energy management strategies for smart port applications, and identifies renewable integration and grid interaction models as key directions for future research. Furthermore, the study proposes an Onshore Power Supply (OPS) Readiness Index (OPSRI), a multi-criteria assessment framework that evaluates ship types based on their operational, technical, infrastructural, and regulatory suitability for onshore power integration. The main contribution of this review lies in integrating international standards, robotic charging technologies, and ship-type-specific readiness assessment into a unified analytical framework. The results indicate that ferries and tugboats are highly suitable for OPS deployment, while long-haul cargo vessels face greater limitations under current conditions. Overall, the findings offer practical insights for port authorities, policymakers, and energy planners, highlighting key challenges and future directions toward smart, sustainable, and low-carbon port ecosystems. Full article

Maritime transport contributes 2.9% of global greenhouse gas emissions, traditionally evaluated through operational fuel cycles while neglecting lifecycle impacts. This study redefines merchant ship recycling as a strategic front-end pillar for global decarbonization by assessing Embodied Carbon Trade-offs. Utilizing a mixed PRISMA systematic and semi-systematic methodology of literature from 2019–2025, we analyzed bulk carriers, container ships, and tankers across six thematic clusters. Our findings demonstrate that scenarios involving the potential decommissioning of up to 22.2% of the global merchant fleet exceeding 20 years of age could significantly mitigate lifecycle emissions by displacing primary iron-ore smelting with circular electric arc furnace marine-steel recovery. Crucially, this environmental dividend is non-linear and bound by regional energy matrices; under deeply decarbonized grids, this technological displacement can theoretically yield an upper-bound 72% emissions reduction, whereas fossil-heavy power supplies significantly diminish net mitigation margins. Practically, this research provides an operational roadmap for shipowners and regulators navigating the Hong Kong Convention and carbon border mechanisms. This work concludes that sustainable shipbreaking has the potential to function as an economically viable, strategic reservoir of low-carbon raw materials essential for achieving international net-zero targets throughout the entire shipping structural lifecycle. Full article

Maritime transportation, a traditionally polluting sector, is engaged in sustainable innovation; advanced detection of marine pollution incidents can help control improvements in this sector. However, coastal and marine environmental governance is increasingly constrained by fragmented monitoring architectures in which environmental, operational, and regulatory datasets remain distributed across institutions and jurisdictions. Comprehensive governance mechanisms that cross the sea–land continuum are limited. Public authorities, port administrations, research institutes, and private operators independently monitor marine pollution, vessel movements, coastal pressures, and urban and ecological risks; however, these data streams remain siloed across organizational, sectoral, and jurisdictional boundaries. The absence of interoperability, real-time exchange, and coordinated analytics generates a gap between monitoring capacity and regulatory effectiveness, resulting in delayed detection of multi-risks, such as pollution incidents. Weak governance and assignment of responsibility and largely reactive enforcement practices further reinforce the problem. Anticipatory interventions are needed to improve coastal and marine sustainability. This paper examines the EMMERA (East Med Cross-border Marine Environmental Risk Assessment through E-Platform Integrated Data Management) platform established by three port authorities as a data-centric intervention designed to address some of these structural limitations. Implemented in port and coastal environments in Cyprus, Greece, and Israel, EMMERA integrates heterogeneous static and dynamic data sources—including satellite observations, administrative records, vessel information, and drone-based monitoring—into a unified operational framework accessible to competent authorities. Through data fusion, cross-validation, and automated anomaly detection combined with targeted drone verification, the platform aims to transform fragmented monitoring streams into coherent, actionable environmental intelligence, strengthening the evidentiary basis for regulatory intervention. The paper presents the platform design and provides a baseline assessment. It argues that EMMERA’s primary contribution lies not in the introduction of additional monitoring tools, but in enabling more effective coastal and marine environmental governance through integrated data infrastructures. EMMERA is proposed as a governance-oriented integrated data infrastructure whose anticipated contribution lies in improving institutional interoperability, risk visibility, and evidence generation for environmental oversight, even as operational effectiveness will require future evaluation following sustained deployment. More broadly, the paper proposes that integrated data architectures can recalibrate environmental governance, shifting emphasis from post hoc documentation toward anticipatory, coordinated, and performance-oriented regulatory practices. Full article

In response to the growing need for decarbonization in the maritime industry, identifying and prioritizing environmentally responsible shipboard behaviors has become increasingly important. This study proposes an integrated Delphi–Interval Type-2 Fuzzy Analytic Hierarchy Process (IT2F-AHP) framework to identify and prioritize Employee Green Behaviors (EGBs) among officer-class seafarers, who play a central role in implementing sustainability practices during daily ship operations. First, a three-round Delphi process was conducted to establish expert consensus on the most relevant green behaviors. Subsequently, IT2F-AHP was employed to prioritize these behaviors while addressing the uncertainty inherent in expert judgments. The results indicate that resource efficiency, energy conservation, and adherence to ballast water management regulations are the highest-priority behaviors for supporting sustainable ship operations. The proposed framework provides a systematic and transparent decision-support tool for shipping companies, maritime education and training institutions, and policymakers to develop targeted training programs, operational procedures, and sustainability strategies. By integrating expert consensus with advanced multi-criteria decision-making, this study contributes to the behavioral dimension of sustainable shipping and offers a practical framework for promoting the green transformation in maritime operations. Full article

The decarbonisation of short-sea passenger shipping is a central challenge within the broader transition toward intelligent and sustainable transportation systems. This paper presents a model-based design and techno-economic assessment of a Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) retrofitting a hybrid diesel-electric regional ferry operating the Naples-Ischia route (~19 nautical miles). An experimentally validated Equivalent Circuit Model (ECM) of a commercial LiFePO₄ cell, parameterised through Hybrid Pulse Power Characterisation (HPPC) tests at 10 °C, 25 °C, and 40 °C and validated via Extended Kalman Filter State-of-Charge (SOC) estimation, is embedded into a full-vessel dynamic model. This last encompasses propulsion, power generation, electrical distribution and battery subsystems. Two energy management strategies are evaluated against the conventional diesel-electric baseline: Strategy 1 (S1), combining in-port BESS discharge with shore-grid recharging; Strategy 2 (S2), adding controlled in-navigation recharging when SOC falls below 20%. S1 is found to achieve a 17% annual CO₂ reduction, while S2 yields superior 20-year economics, with annual net savings of ~€470,000, a simple payback period of 3.72 years, and ~6 battery replacements versus ~9 under S1. Also, adopting S2 allows maintaining a shallower average Depth of Discharge (DoD), namely ~40% vs. ~70% of S1. A multi-objective optimisation confirms that the proposed BESS layout occupies only 5% of the available garage area and satisfies Load Line Convention constraints without reducing commercial payload capacity. The presented integrated framework provides a replicable, multidisciplinary tool for BESS deployment across the Mediterranean short-sea ferry sector, directly contributing to the advancement of sustainable maritime transportation. Full article

The global maritime sector is undergoing rapid transformation, creating an urgent need to align digital port technologies with a sustainable development framework. However, existing research on smart ports and the blue economy is fragmented and predominantly driven by deterministic approaches that overlook systemic complexity and uncertainty. This study develops a smart port system model grounded in blue economy principles, using a Bayesian network to analyze causal relationships among operational, environmental, and governance variables under uncertainty. The model incorporates key factors including port operational efficiency, logistics reliability, environmental compliance systems, coastal employment, and regulatory enforcement. The findings indicate that operational and logistical factors are the primary drivers of the system, while environmental and socioeconomic variables strongly shape sustainability outcomes. Scenario analysis shows that coordinated interventions targeting these key variables generate the greatest improvements in Smart Port–Blue Economy integration. Sensitivity analysis further identifies coastal economic output, regional competitiveness, and marine ecosystem health as the most responsive outcome variables. The research offers lessons for policymakers to enhance port management by integrating logistics and technological considerations with blue economy principles to design adaptive and resilient policies, particularly in island regions. Full article

The decarbonization of maritime and inland waterway transport requires implementation pathways that go beyond fuel substitution and address energy, water, safety, infrastructure, and lifecycle constraints. This study proposes a sustainable technical pathway for hydrogen implementation in small-scale maritime and inland waterway vessels, using Colombia as a territorial case study. The methodology integrates technological surveillance, national energy-transition assessment, sectoral and territorial analysis, hydrogen pathway selection, water-resource management, safety and regulatory review, lifecycle criteria, and progressive validation under Technology Readiness Level principles. The results identify compressed gaseous hydrogen combined with Proton Exchange Membrane fuel cells and hybrid battery support as the most feasible short-term configuration for small vessels due to its modularity, operational flexibility, and compatibility with decentralized applications. The framework also shows that hydrogen production must be designed as a coupled water–energy–hydrogen system, prioritizing treated wastewater, rainwater, desalinated water, or other non-potable sources to avoid pressure on community and agricultural water demand. Laboratory and prototype validation demonstrated a progressive route from didactic hydrogen systems to small-vessel maquettes and scaled prototypes. The proposed pathway provides an implementation-oriented framework for safe, sustainable, and territorially adapted hydrogen deployment in small maritime systems. Full article

Carbon emission reduction decisions are subject to risks for shipping carriers. These include policy uncertainty (an upcoming policy may be stringent or lenient) and cost uncertainty (the operation cost may increase or decrease in the future). This paper develops a two-period game model to study the carbon emission reduction strategy choices of two risk-averse shipping carriers facing both policy uncertainty and cost uncertainty, with the goal of advancing sustainable maritime transport. They can choose a high- or low-carbon emission reduction strategy in period 1. Whether they need to upgrade in period 2 depends on the strategy they choose in period 1 and the policy implemented in period 2. The results show that in a deterministic environment, a high-cost strategy translates directly into a high-price strategy. However, in period 2, when the policy is lenient, adopting a high-carbon emission reduction strategy does not always result in a higher price than adopting a low-carbon emission reduction strategy. This result is counterintuitive. In addition, the carrier adopting a high-carbon emission reduction strategy does not necessarily set a higher price than the competitor who adopts a low-carbon emission reduction strategy. The market share plays an important role in shaping the equilibrium. When the possibility of a stringent policy is extremely low or extremely high, both carriers will choose an identical strategy. However, when the possibility is medium, they will choose differentiated strategies. The carrier with a bigger market share can tolerate a higher possibility of an upcoming stringent policy than the competitor. The degree of cost volatility also has a significant impact on the equilibrium. Its influence is particularly pronounced under a moderate probability of a stringent policy. Shippers’ carbon emission sensitivity also has a positive effect on encouraging carriers to choose a greener strategy. Our findings provide actionable insights for policymakers and industry stakeholders to facilitate the sustainability transition of the shipping sector through appropriate policy design. Full article

The energy transition in maritime shipping is increasing the importance of alternative fuels and port infrastructure capable of handling them in a safe, regular, and economically justified manner. In this context, LNG remains a transitional fuel with a relatively high level of technological and organizational maturity, particularly in regions characterized by intensive liner, ferry, and RO-RO traffic. This article proposes a universal model for organizing LNG distribution within the port–transport system, based on three interdependent dimensions: demand potential, infrastructure readiness, and operational feasibility. The model structure enables the classification of ports according to their functions within the regional bunkering network and the identification of nodes of the greatest systemic importance. The model was validated using data on vessel calls, the structure of container and RO-RO traffic, LNG infrastructure status, and monthly traffic variability. The analysis demonstrated that the most justified LNG distribution arrangement in the Baltic Sea is polycentric in nature and concentrated in ports, combining a high degree of transport regularity with confirmed LNG readiness. The results indicate that the rationale for LNG infrastructure development is selective in nature and depends on the actual position of a port within the transport network, rather than solely on cargo throughput volume. The proposed model also retains its applicability to other alternative fuels after adjustment of technological, regulatory, and operational parameters. By supporting the selective development of alternative-fuel infrastructure in ports with the highest systemic relevance, the model contributes to sustainable maritime transport planning and to the transition toward lower-emission port–transport systems. Full article