Reducing agricultural fuel consumption by minimizing inefficiencies

Fuel consumption by agricultural vehicles presents a financial burden on operators, and an environmental burden on the community – so any reduction of fuel usage is of interest to all. Dividing fuel usage into functional components – working and non-working – allows prioritization of optimization efforts that also considers multiple vehicle types, capacities and fuel consumption rates. A general framework, including the mathematical model and solution approach, is proposed to optimize the fuel consumption for the non-working distance and is implemented by vehicles in intra- and inter-fields. A mixed integer model is formulated and combined with a search algorithm to find an optimal solution. Subsequently, a case study related to wheat harvesting is presented to verify the effectiveness and efficiency of the search. Compared with the operational schedule, fuel consumed by harvesters in non-working activities is reduced significantly by 19.5%. Furthermore, total fuel consumed by harvesters is reduced by 16.3%. This paper provides a general framework for reducing the fuel consumption of agricultural vehicles and makes these agricultural vehicles more environmentally friendly.