Particle-Gaseous pollutant emissions and cost of global biomass supply chain via maritime transportation: Full-scale synergy model

Environmental and economic issues in the maritime transportation and logistics industry have historically received less stakeholder attention than aviation and overland freight sectors. Stakeholders in the port industry have gradually started paying attention to emissions and cost issues across all the sectors, such as supply chains. Global biomass supply chain is one of the main sectors which has not been addressed in published literature. To address this gap, this study aims to develop a dynamic full-scale synergy model to assess cost-mass flow, particulate matter emissions, and air pollutants for maritime transportation of the global crude palm oil biomass supply chain. Focusing on leading producers of palm oil worldwide, we have analyzed a total of 93 sea routes from Malaysia and Indonesia to main export markets in the US, Europe, and Asia. The analysis distinguishes three freight categories: light, medium-weight, and heavy for different sizes of capacity and types of container ships based on the twenty-foot equivalent unit (TEU). The findings highlight the dependency of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions level on other factors such as technology, size, and mass flow used for container ships. The results also show a strong relationship between GHG emitted and the type of container ship in a systemic view. A ship with higher TEU contributes to the higher transported amount and lower GHG emissions in the long term. To conclude, the results would increase port industry stakeholders’ understanding of developing energy policies and managerial strategies for low cost and low carbon fuels technologies.