Design and Operational Innovations in Adapting the Existing Merchant River Fleet to Cost-Effective Shipping

Abstract

Modernisation of the existing river fleet adapted for the local conditions of the Middle and Lower Vistula can be considered as a solution to slow down the progressive decrease of river transport in this area. The implementation of technical improvements, smart technologies and enhancement of transport performance may partially solve the problem of growing demand for multimodal transport of containers and oversized loads in a shorter perspective than the expected period of planned revitalisation of the river. The paper presents investigations on the modernisation of river convoys adapted to the current navigational conditions of the Lower Vistula. The different options have been discussed by the authors with river fleet operators and the best recognised solution was agreed to be the use of river convoys combining modernised motor barges and the pushed barges previously used in this area. Improvement of the transport profitability, reduction of fuel consumption, air pollution and noise can be achieved at minimum costs by modernisation of the main power-propulsion systems of outdated motor barges and the implementation of innovative steering systems on pushed barges. The demand for power-propulsion and manoeuvring performance of modernised convoys is discussed in the paper.

Optimizing Resources of Multimodal Transport Terminal for Material Flow Service

“…However, the used currency does not affect the values of the proposed criterion (1) as this indicator is dimensionless. The determination coefficient for the evaluated dependencies (8) and (9) has values in the range from 0.89 to 0.94, this indicates the high adequacy of the obtained regression models.…”

“…However, decision-making on the choice of service technologies and the amount of production resources requires preliminary justification using the advanced models of a transport hub functioning. Existing approaches to the modelling of technological processes of transport terminals are mainly based on analytical models [9][10][11][12][13][14] that do not allow researchers to estimate the complex influence of a set of random external factors on the efficiency of the hub's operation. Thus, the research direction of creating new models of operation of transport terminals using modern mathematical methods and information technologies is relevant, and the use of the resulting methodologies can increase the efficiency of the processes of logistics management and ensure the sustainable development of the transport system.…”

“…The problems that are usually solved at the macro-level are the localization of transport hubs in the nodes of a transport network [15][16][17][18], the modernization of the fleet [9], and the resource planning at the scale of the supply network [19].…”

A Comparative Analysis of Energy Consumption by Conventional and Anchor Based Dynamic Positioning of Ship

“…An interesting solution seems to be the use of wind energy through the use of a sail, which is compatible with the conventional propulsion [52,53]. An interesting solution may be the application of hybrid drive systems using electric motors [54], hydrogen fuel cells [55,56], Flettner rotors [57], the Magnus effect [58][59][60], hybrid energy sources [61] and others [62][63][64].…”

Evaluating an Inland Waterway Cargo Vessel’s Energy Efficiency Indices

“…However, there are innovations that include energy efficient inland vessel designs. Reduced fuel consumption, air pollution and improved overall efficiency (considering specific waterway conditions) were investigated for merchant river vessels in [10]. Moreover, a high energy efficiency inland ferry concept was developed in [11], using hybrid propulsion.…”