OPTIMAL GLOBAL PLANNING TOOL FOR FREIGHT TRANSPORTATION
Presented at Port of the Future Conference 2026
Session Overview
Speaker: Nawaf Nazir, Staff Research Scientist, Pacific Northwest National Laboratories (PNNL)
Intermodal Freight Transportation (IFT) accounts for 10% of the United States’ total emissions, a number which is expected to grow due to recent increase in e-commerce. This sector runs entirely on petroleum fuels due to the high costs required for transition. A range of new fuels and energy sources exists, including biofuels, e-fuels, hydrogen, ammonia, and battery electric systems.
This presentation introduces an IFT decision-support tool that combines the Global Change Analysis Model (GCAM), a market equilibrium model developed at PNNL, with multi-modal route planning to comprehensively evaluate the impact of various present and future fuels on the overall IFT system. Outputs include optimal fuel-mix choices, freight modes, routes, and associated cost and emissions metrics.