Locating Refueling Stations for Alternative-Fuel Vehicles in a Multi-Class Vehicle Transportation Network and Its Impact on the Environment

The existing literature regarding the location of alternative fuel (AF) refueling stations in transportation networks generally assumes that all vehicles are capable of traveling the same driving range and have similar levels of fuel in their tanks at the moment they enter the network and when they exist it. In this research, we relax these assumptions and introduce a multi-class vehicle transportation network in which vehicles have different driving ranges and fuel tank levels at their origins and destinations. A 0-1 linear programming model is proposed for locating a given number of refueling stations that maximize the total traffic flow covered (in round trips per time unit) by the stations on the network. Through numerical experiments with recent medium- and heavy-duty truck traffic data in the Pennsylvania Turnpike, we identify the optimal sets of refueling stations for liquified natural gas (LNG) trucks considering multiple truck classes with different driving ranges and fuel tank levels at origins and destinations. Moreover, we discuss the impact of refueling station construction cost on annual greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reduction and social cost of carbon (SCC) savings.

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Dr. Jose Ventura is a Distinguished Professor of Industrial Engineering at Penn State. He holds a BS degree in Industrial Engineering from Polytechnic Univ. of Catalonia (Spain), and MEng and PhD degrees in Industrial Engineering and Operations Research from Univ. of Florida. His research interest focuses on supply chain management, with a varying emphasis that includes supplier selection, auctions and price negotiation strategies for procurement, inventory coordination, and transportation. He is also interested in traffic network equilibrium, energy transport logistics, and energy policy. Ventura has published over 130 archival journal papers. His research has garnered funding from federal and state agencies, such as NSF, DARPA-TRP, the Pentagon, and PA Turnpike Commission, and industry, such as GE and McDonnell Douglas. His research has been recognized by numerous awards, including the 2017 IISE David F. Baker Distinguished Research Award, the 1990 NSF Presidential Young Investigator Award, and the 1988 IISE Doctoral Dissertation Award.