The Influence of Operation Platform on the Energy Consumption of Container Handling

Because container terminals are facing pressure to achieve carbon neutrality in China, saving energy has become an important objective of container terminals. This paper analyzed the movement path of containers between the quay carne and the yard, and found that paths in the vertical direction existed, requiring unnecessary energy consumption. To solve the unnecessary energy consumption problem, a completely new work mode called the high platform operation mode was proposed. In this new mode, a high platform is built above the yard and container trucks drive onto the high platform. By building an energy consumption model to compare the energy consumption of the traditional and new modes, we found that the new mode is able to save 1.478 kWh of electricity compared to the traditional mode when handling one container. A terminal company in Tianjin Port was taken as an example to examine and validate the efficiency of the proposed mode. The computational results indicate that the electricity saved in 12 years would be able to cover the cost of building the high platform, meaning that the new mode could reduce container terminals’ energy consumption and accelerate the achievement of carbon neutrality.