Voyage Optimization for Swappable Battery-powered Inland Containerships: Considering Heterogenous Flow Velocity and Multi-battery Swapping

Ships equipped with containerized battery packages and refuelled via battery swapping are now regarded as one of the most promising solutions to shape green inland shipping. The technical progress has proposed higher requirements for voyage scheduling in terms of the emerging issue of battery swapping and the necessity to be jointly processed with energy management. Aiming to help ship operators make the optimal decision on sailing speed and battery swapping, an optimization model that considers the practical inland navigation environment and multi-battery swapping demand is proposed to minimize the energy-related cost. Simulation results demonstrate the effectiveness of the multi-battery swapping strategy based on the proposed methodology. Impacts of battery state of charge limits and electricity price are also investigated.