Identification of decarbonization strategies in an industrial port area using a MILP multi-objective optimization

The emission reduction of port heavy-duty vehicles and hard-to-abate industries, operating in the neighbourhood areas, plays a crucial role towards the decarbonization of industrial port districts. Different solutions were proposed in literature, ranging from the substitution of current Diesel vehicles with alternative powertrains to the industrial green hydrogen supply. However, only few studies quantitatively justify the choice of a specific shared energy infrastructure for both alternative port equipment and industries in terms of costeffectiveness and carbon footprint reduction. This study aims to find the best decarbonization strategies for an industrial port district in the Adriatic Sea, assuming two different energy market scenarios, in 2030 and 2050. The best solution is found by implementing a Mixed-Integer-Linear-Programming model to optimize concurrently the design-and-operation of the port considering as objective functions investment and operation costs and direct CO2,eq emissions. Input data are the hourly energy demand of the port fleets (cars, yard tractors, reach stackers, forklifts, cranes), a steel plant hydrogen demand, and investment/operation costs of new infrastructures and/or powertrains. The model provides the optimal design-operation configuration of the port energy system including the optimal combination of hybrid-Diesel, electric, and hydrogen vehicles. In both energy market scenarios, preliminary results show that a 40% reduction of port emissions is achieved by the electrification of cargo-handling equipment and the use of renewables. Only in presence of a specific financial support or a high value of the carbon tax, the optimal solution in 2050 encompasses the introduction of green hydrogen, the 30% of which produced locally.