It is of significant importance to optimize the energy consumption of ships in order to improve economy and reduce CO₂ emissions. However, the energy use of ships is affected by a series of navigational environmental parameters, which have certain spatial and temporal differences and variability. Therefore, the dynamic collaborative optimization method of sailing route and speed, which fully considers the spatial and temporal distribution characteristics of those factors, is of great importance. In this paper, the spatial and temporal distribution characteristics of the environmental factors and their related ship energy consumption profiles are first analyzed. Subsequently, a ship energy consumption model considering various environmental factors is established to realize the prediction of energy use of ships within the navigation region. Then, a novel dynamic collaborative optimization algorithm, which adopts the Model Predictive Control (MPC) strategy and swarm intelligence algorithm, is proposed, to further improve the ship's energy consumption optimization. Finally, a case study is conducted to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method. The results show that the newly developed dynamic collaborative optimization method, which fully considers the continuously time-varying characteristics of environmental and operational parameters, could effectively reduce the energy consumption in comparison to the original operational mode. In addition, the adoption of the MPC strategy produces better performance results compared to the optimization method without the MPC strategy.

Energy saving and emission reduction have attracted a great deal of attention in the maritime industry. The optimization of a ship's energy efficiency can reduce energy consumption and CO₂ emissions effectively. However, most of the available studies only focus on either the sailing speed or route optimization, and the interaction between speed and route under the influence of multiple environmental factors was not accounted properly. In this paper, a novel joint optimization method of the sailing route and speed, which considers the interaction between route and speed as well as multiple environmental factors, is proposed to fully exploit the energy efficiency's potential. Moreover, a joint optimization model of the sailing route and speed, which is based on an energy consumption model that considers multiple environmental factors, is established. Next, a solution algorithm for the joint optimization model is investigated in order to achieve joint decision-making with regard to the sailing route and speed. Finally, a case study is conducted that demonstrates the effectiveness of the proposed method. The results show that the proposed method can achieve the optimal sailing route and speed under complex environmental conditions, as well as a reduction in fuel consumption and CO₂ emissions of about 4%.

The optimization of ship energy consumption is attracting a great deal of attention, as societies seek to save energy and reduce emissions. Shipping companies are more concerned with the energy consumption of a ship fleet, as opposed to that of a single ship. Because the energy consumption of a fleet is influenced by multiple factors including environmental factors, port operations and transport demands, an improvement in a single ship's energy consumption does not necessarily mean that the overall energy consumption of a fleet is good. In addition, those factors are usually varying over time, making it hard to optimize the fleet's energy consumption by methods that do not consider these time-varying factors. Therefore, a bi-level distributed dynamic optimization method based on distributed model predictive control is proposed. Moreover, an upper-level optimization model for fleet operational decision-making and a lower-level dynamic optimization model of fleet energy consumption are established. Based on these, a control algorithm for the dynamic optimization of fleet energy consumption is developed. Finally, a case study is carried out to demonstrate the effectiveness of the method. It can further reduce the energy consumption of each ship by at least 1.1% and about 6.8% for the whole fleet.