Sustainable and integrated rail operations planning for grain exports

The grain export in Brazil is operated by several players and regulated by a few governmental agencies. Although players have particular interests, sustainability is an increasing concern that poses a common challenge to rail operations: reducing CO₂ emissions. This work proposes a simulation-optimisation approach for assigning trains to routes in a complex queuing system, minimising CO₂ emissions of the country-wide rail operations without compromising the delivery of planned volume exports. The model considers a multi-modal logistic system, i.e., terminals, railways, and ports integrated into a closed circuit. The computational experiments using real-world data of 2021 reveal that the CO₂ emissions could be reduced by 5.32 kilo tons and still increase the grain export by 2.20% per year.