Reducing Carbon Emissions for the Vehicle Routing Problem by Utilizing Multiple Depots

Sihan Wang, Cheng Han, Yang Yu, Min Huang, Wei Sun and Ikou Kaku
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Sihan Wang: State Key Laboratory of Synthetic Automation for Process Industries, College of Information Science and Engineering, Northeastern University, Shenyang 110819, China
Cheng Han: State Key Laboratory of Synthetic Automation for Process Industries, College of Information Science and Engineering, Northeastern University, Shenyang 110819, China
Yang Yu: State Key Laboratory of Synthetic Automation for Process Industries, College of Information Science and Engineering, Northeastern University, Shenyang 110819, China
Min Huang: State Key Laboratory of Synthetic Automation for Process Industries, College of Information Science and Engineering, Northeastern University, Shenyang 110819, China
Wei Sun: Business School, Liaoning University, Shenyang 110819, China
Ikou Kaku: Department of Environmental Management, Tokyo City University, Yokohama 224-8551, Japan

Sustainability, 2022, vol. 14, issue 3, 1-18

Abstract: Emission reductions could be achieved by replacing the single-depot mode with a multi-depot mode of vehicle routing. In our study, we identified situations under which multiple depots could be used to effectively reduce carbon emissions. We proposed a branch-and-price (BAP) algorithm to obtain an optimal solution for the multi-depot green vehicle routing problem. Based on the BAP algorithm, we accurately quantified the carbon emission reduction potential of the multi-depot mode over the single-depot mode. Factors such as the number of depots, vehicle speed, customer demand, and service time were considered and analyzed. Computational tests were conducted, and the results showed that using multiple depots in a vehicle routing problem can reduce carbon emissions by at most 37.6%. In sensitivity analyses, we show relationships between these factors, and several managerial insights that can be used to successfully reduce carbon emissions were summarized.

Keywords: vehicle routing problem; multi-depot; carbon emission; sensitivity analyses (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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