Research On Multimodal Transport Route Optimization Problem Based On Carbon Constraint Policies

With the development of environmental protection and low-carbon economy, carbon constraint policy is gradually become reality, influencing the actual companies and organizations’operation. Among different industry, carbon emission from transport sector continues rising in recent years, with average annual growth rate over150%. Multimodal transport, as the future trend of modern transport, has larger emission reduction potential.Therefore, under the low-carbon economy and carbon constraint policy background, this paper has selected multimodal container as the research object, analyzed the network structure of multimodal transport and proposed calculation methods for different transport part. Then, this paper has established the multimodal transport path selection optimization model under carbon constraint policies-carbon tax and carbon emission trading.To demonstrate the model, we selected the multimodal container line from Chongqing to New York as case study. Through case study analysis, we could see that:(1) Optimal paths for different optimization objectives vary a lot with corresponding carbon emission having significant differences.(2) Under carbon tax and carbon trading policy, the optimal path is from Chongqing to Duisburg by rail transport and then to reach New York by shipping. Compared with the existing path, the optimal path’s cost is only about80percent of existing one, carbon emission has been significantly reduced and the time was shorten by nearly10days. And the change in carbon trading quota rate has larger impact on total cost, compared with carbon tax rate in the case.(3) Carbon trading scheme has less total cost than carbon tax situation, and the difference between different paths under carbon trading policy is larger. Linked to the policy itself, we could find that carbon trading policy could give companies greater flexibility.In the future, with the implement of carbon tax policy, the model could be further refined. The appropriate software tools could also been developed, which could help managers make better decision, achieving environmental protection and economic development win-win situation.