Design and management of a LNG distribution network for sea traffic in the Mediterranean Area

In order to reduce the dependence on oil and mitigating the environmental impact in the transport sector, European Union establishes minimum requirements for the construction of infrastructures for alternative fuels, which include, among others, Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG). By 31 December 2025, ports should be equipped with a suitable number of LNG supply points, in order to allow the navigation of LNG-powered ships in both inland waterways and sea. In this scenario, the problems of designing and managing the infrastructure for LNG distribution, consisting of coastal and inland supply points, are of primary importance. In the paper, the problem of designing an infrastructure for LNG distribution in the Mediterranean Area is taken into consideration, and the specific problem of assigning and managing such local resources as bunker-ships, tank trucks and trains (that can be moved to/from and between the supply points to increase the capacity to satisfy the LNG demand), is dealt with and formalized as a mathematical programming problem.