Voyage Route Optimization for Ocean Going Vessels Balancing Cost, Fuel Consumption and CO2 Emissions

True North Marine is a Montreal based consulting company offering services on route selection and analysis to ocean going vessels. Current practice is finding shortest time routes. The IMO (International Maritime Organization) is implementing new regulations as of January 1st 2020, requiring vessels to burn fuel with much lower sulphur content (drop from 3.5% to 0.5%) with anticipated effect that fuel costs for vessel operators will significantly rise. It is expected that new routes balance operational cost, fuel and Greenhouse gases emission cost. Efficient planning in this new environment requires support from advanced analytics tools ranging from descriptive to prescriptive analytics. This project aims developing decision tools to support planning process. Based on forecast weather data, historical weather data, vessel characteristics and data obtained from monitoring past performance of vessels, these tools will allow analyzing many routes in order to determine the optimal speed / fuel consumption setting and best routing alternative. The project will develop new models and methods for voyage planning and train a group of highly qualified personnel (HQP) with multidisciplinary competence including Big data, analytics, optimization, planning under uncertainty, and large scale optimization.

Faculty Supervisor:

Mikael Rönnqvist;Jean-Francois Audy;Jean-François Audy;Jean-Francois Cordeau

Student:

Partner:

True North Marine

Discipline:

Engineering

Sector:

Transportation and warehousing

University:

Université Laval

Program: