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Open research questions in Maritime Transport Emissions and Efficiency

160 gap statements mined from Maritime Transport Emissions and Efficiency papers in our 7.9M-paper local library, which holds 1,281 papers on the topic — drawn mostly from each paper's own stated research gap, future-work, challenge and limitation notes, and its abstract. The ones listed below are a selection still marked open; each names the study that raised it, with a DOI link where the paper has one.

Choosing where to publish on Maritime Transport Emissions and Efficiency? See the ranked Earth Science journals.

What the literature leaves open

  • The current evidence concerning the conditions under which AI generates verifiable carbon benefits remains fragmented. There is a need for a systematic review of the current state of research on AI in shipping. The study aims to address the research gap by advancing an evidence-informed AI-to-Carbon Value Chain conceptual synthesis.

    Artificial Intelligence-Enabled Low-Carbon Transition in Shipping: A Systematic Bibliometric Review · 2026 · DOI

  • The paper mentions the need to prevent information leakage from future observations during data preprocessing.

    Auxiliary Power Prediction for Underwater Vehicles Based on CEEMDAN–VMD–LSTM Multi-Stage Decomposition Framework · 2026 · DOI

  • The shipping industry lacks effective control measures and treatment technologies for exhaust emissions. There is a need for advanced techniques to mitigate these emissions due to increasing stringency of emission regulations.

    Progress of Ship Exhaust Emissions in China’s Lijiang River: Current Status and Aftertreatment Technologies · 2025 · DOI

  • The need to address global environmental changes necessitates transforming energy production and consumption practices. There is a gap in evaluating the feasibility of transitioning from conventional marine fuels to alternative options. The study aims to fill this gap by assessing the environmental impact of alternative fuels within the maritime sector.

    Decarbonization Potential of Alternative Fuels in Container Shipping: A Case Study of the EVER ALOT Vessel · 2025 · DOI

  • The implementation of Green Digital Shipping Corridors requires coordinated action across the three pillars of decarbonization, digitalization, and human capital development. The paper identifies challenges such as resistance to change, skill gaps, and the need for cross-disciplinary collaboration.

    A Strategic Pathway to Green Digital Shipping · 2025 · DOI

  • The IMO-recommended value of 40% for decarbonization goals may not be accurate. There is a need for a quantitative interpretation of the 2023 IMO GHG Strategy's target. The technical requirements for decarbonization are not well understood.

    Technical Requirements for 2023 IMO GHG Strategy · 2024 · DOI

  • The study highlights the need to introduce methodologies and practical solutions to minimize expenses and ensure user-friendly operations.

    A Quantitative Risk Analysis during Truck-to-Ship Ammonia Bunkering · 2024 · DOI

  • The ammonia bunkering industry and the implementation of safety zones are currently in the early phases of development. There is a need to introduce methodologies and practical solutions to minimize expenses and ensure user-friendly operations. The study addresses the gap by investigating the dispersion characteristics of leaked gas during truck-to-ship ammonia bunkering.

    A Quantitative Risk Analysis during Truck-to-Ship Ammonia Bunkering · 2024 · DOI

  • The gap between traditional fuels and methods and the need for compliance with EEXI and CII standards. The lack of novel approaches to optimize energy efficiency and reduce emissions in maritime transport.

    Optimizing Maritime Energy Efficiency: A Machine Learning Approach Using Deep Reinforcement Learning for EEXI and CII Compliance · 2024 · DOI

  • The economic viability of nuclear-powered container ships remains uncertain owing to high capital costs and limited operating experience.

    Threshold Analysis of the Economic Viability of Nuclear-Powered Container Ships: Conventional Propulsion, Alternative-Fuel Benchmarks, and Autonomous Operation · 2026 · DOI

  • However, little is known about how sustainable shipping stakeholders engage with different topic categories and the desired solutions underlying their engagement patterns.

    Analysing stakeholder engagement as a response to social media content on sustainable shipping using topic modelling and grounded theory · 2026 · DOI

  • Existing liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) fuel supply systems are considered for conversion to alternative marine fuels, but the effects of fuel properties on their operating conditions have not been quantified.

    Simulation-Based Analysis of the Effects of Alternative Fuel Properties on the Operating Characteristics of Marine Fuel Supply Systems · 2026 · DOI

  • The findings reveal that existing models for estimating IWT emissions require significant improvement, and government and industry measures to mitigate IWT emissions are still insufficient.

    Navigating environmental sustainability in inland waterway transport: emission challenges and solutions · 2025 · DOI

  • The need for a unified framework to compare the well-to-wake GHG-reduction potential of different fuels. The lack of understanding of technological bottlenecks along the well-to-wake value chain.

    Technological Bottlenecks in Fuels for Maritime Decarbonization · 2026 · DOI

  • The lack of electric-powered workboats for hydro-floating solar hybrid systems. The need for efficient and environmentally friendly transportation for operation and maintenance of hydro-floating solar hybrid systems.

    Design and Development of Electric-Powered Workboat for Hydro-Floating Solar Hybrid System · 2026 · DOI

  • Although the proposed PI-controlled hybrid wind-FC-battery power system showed stable operation and high hydrogen efficiency, there are still some limitations that need to be studied further.

    PI-based energy management of a hybrid Wind–Fuel Cell–Battery system for low-emission marine vessels · 2026 · DOI

  • The study identifies the need to balance energy production with the preservation of marine ecosystems.

    Separable ODE Modeling of Algal Growth Dynamics Under Offshore Floating Photovoltaic Systems with Varying Irradiance · 2026 · DOI

  • Further real-time implementation and experimental validation of constrained energy management in hydrogen–electric ships, - Analysis of the economic feasibility of the proposed strategy, - Investigation of the impact of other environmental factors on the shipping…

    Power-Deficit-Constrained Hierarchical Energy Management for Hydrogen–Electric Ships · 2026 · DOI

  • The study uses a private dataset and a public dataset with extensive port-stay and shutdown gaps, - the applicability of the decomposition cascade is limited by the availability of exogenous…

    Auxiliary Power Prediction for Underwater Vehicles Based on CEEMDAN–VMD–LSTM Multi-Stage Decomposition Framework · 2026 · DOI

  • Further research on the economic viability of nuclear-powered container ships, - Investigation of the impact of carbon pricing on the economic viability of alternative fuels, - Analysis of the effects of autonomous operation on the crew costs of nuclear-powered container…

    Threshold Analysis of the Economic Viability of Nuclear-Powered Container Ships: Conventional Propulsion, Alternative-Fuel Benchmarks, and Autonomous Operation · 2026 · DOI

  • The successful application of plasma oxidation for desulfurization and denitrification of ships needs to be continuously explored, - The use of plasma oxidation in combination with adsorption and catalysis needs to be…

    Progress of Ship Exhaust Emissions in China’s Lijiang River: Current Status and Aftertreatment Technologies · 2025 · DOI

  • Further research on the economic efficiency of alternative fuels, - Investigation of other alternative fuels such as hydrogen and biofuels, - Analysis of the scalability of alternative fuels in the maritime…

    Decarbonization Potential of Alternative Fuels in Container Shipping: A Case Study of the EVER ALOT Vessel · 2025 · DOI

  • Studying the human element is crucial as the success of green initiatives depends on practical training, cultural change, and stakeholder engagement, - Exploring pay-as-you-save (PAYS) models to reduce upfront costs for retrofitting vessels and implementing green…

    A Strategic Pathway to Green Digital Shipping · 2025 · DOI

  • Fuel production costs were obtained from several reliable sources, but the mutual influence between fuels on price was not considered, - The upper bounds of fuel production cost were utilized, which may result in over-estimated annual fuel costs, - A decrease in the life cycle emissions of fuels in the future with technological developments was not considered, - Different carbon price scenarios can result…

    Comparative Life Cycle Assessments and Economic Analyses of Alternative Marine Fuels: Insights for Practical Strategies · 2024 · DOI

  • The implementation of the proposed time-phased roadmap for port decarbonisation towards net zero - The dependence relationships between emission reduction measures - The need for cross-sector collaboration among value-chain…

    A Literature Review of Seaport Decarbonisation: Solution Measures and Roadmap to Net Zero · 2024 · DOI

Most-cited papers in Maritime Transport Emissions and Efficiency

Most recent work

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Open questions raised by papers listed on this page include: (1) There is a need for a systematic review of the current state of research on AI in shipping (“Artificial Intelligence-Enabled Low-Carbon Transition in Shipping: A Systematic…”, 2026); (2) Little is known about how sustainable shipping stakeholders engage with different topic categories and the desired solutions underlying their engagement patterns (“Analysing stakeholder engagement as a response to social media content on…”, 2026); (3) The lack of understanding of technological bottlenecks along the well-to-wake value chain (“Technological Bottlenecks in Fuels for Maritime Decarbonization”, 2026); (4) The lack of electric-powered workboats for hydro-floating solar hybrid systems (“Design and Development of Electric-Powered Workboat for Hydro-Floating Solar…”, 2026); (5) There is a need for advanced techniques to mitigate these emissions due to increasing stringency of emission regulations (“Progress of Ship Exhaust Emissions in China’s Lijiang River: Current Status and…”, 2025). 160 gap statements have been mined from Maritime Transport Emissions and Efficiency papers in our 7.9M-paper local library, which holds 1,281 papers on the topic; the gaps come from whichever of those papers state one. They are mostly the research gaps the authors state and the papers' abstracts, plus future-work, limitations and challenges passages. The ones listed below are a selection still marked open; each names the study that raised it, with a DOI link where the paper has one, so you can read the original claim in context.

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