Multimodal Transportation Route Optimization of Cold Chain Container in Time-Varying Network Considering Carbon Emissions

To solve the multimodal transport route optimization problem considering carbon emission, the vehicle speed has time-varying characteristics, and the customer has a time window limit. The carbon emission of multimodal transport system is affected by the energy consumption of transport vehicles in the time-varying network. The time-varying network is uncertain, and carbon emissions may continue to rise after a gradual decline. Based on this, this study established the sum of the carbon emission cost, transportation cost, penalty cost for exceeding the time window, and the damage cost of the cold chain cargo as the objective function. A route optimization model of cold chain container multimodal transportation was established. Static and dynamic optimization scenarios were designed and a hummingbird evolutionary genetic algorithm was used to solve the model. The effectiveness of the model and the practical value of the study are verified by the empirical analysis of the multimodal transport network of the Yangtze River Delta economic group. Results show that the dynamic model of the time-varying network can more truly reflect the transportation of the multimodal transport network and meet the efficiency requirements for the cold chain container multimodal transport. This study aims to solve the time-varying network under cold chain route optimization of container intermodal transportation, provides new insights for related businesses and a theoretical basis for reasonable multimodal transport route decisions.