Multiple Equipment Integrated Scheduling and Storage Space Allocation in Rail–Water Intermodal Container Terminals Considering Energy Efficiency

The rail–water coordinated operation area in a container terminal is the key place to operate the transshipment of intermodal containers between the rail and the sea—the handling efficiency in which can affect the overall transport turnover efficiency. A complicated operational process for various handling equipment exists in this coordinated operation area and can lead to a large amount of energy consumption and environmental pollution. This study proposes an integrated optimization approach to manage the multiple equipment integrated scheduling and storage space allocation problem in an energy-efficient way. A bi-objective optimization model is proposed to minimize the overall operation time and energy consumption, in which the handling operations of imported and exported intermodal containers are considered simultaneously. A genetic algorithm based heuristic algorithm is developed to solve the problem. Results from computational experiments indicate the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed model and algorithm, verifying that a near-optimum solution can be obtained for large-scale problems efficiently, which contributes to the improvement of operation services in rail–water intermodal container terminals.