Green Vehicle Routing Problem and Emissions Minimization

The vehicle emissions mainly depend on the amount of consumed fuel, type of fuel and traveled distance. One way to combat with greenhouse gases and air pollution associated with oil consumption is to use alternative energy sources. However, the lack of infrastructures such as refueling stations is one of the major barriers to the adoption of alternative-fuel vehicles. In this study, as an operational approach for transition period, we propose a model to extend the vehicle routing problem to green vehicles. This is a NP-Hard problem, and consequently it is very difficult to solve the real-world instances. Therefore, we propose a solving method based on benders decomposition that equipped with a set of valid inequalities. Implementation of proposed algorithm on randomly generated problems leads to acceptable results in a reasonable time.