With the global economy’s relentless growth and heightened environmental consciousness, sustainable maritime transport emerges as a pivotal development trajectory for the shipping sector. This study systematically analyzes 478 publications searched in the Web of Science Core Collection, from 2000 to 2023, utilizing bibliometric methods to investigate the application areas in sustainable development within the shipping industry. This study begins with an analysis of annual publication trends, which reveals a substantial expansion in research endeavors within this discipline over recent years. Subsequently, a comprehensive statistical evaluation of scholarly journals and a collaborative network assessment are conducted to pinpoint the foremost productive journals, nations, organizations, and individual researchers. Furthermore, a keyword co-occurrence methodology is applied to delineate the core research themes and emerging focal points within this domain, thereby outlining potential research directions for future research. In addition, drawing on the keyword co-occurrence analysis, the advancements in intelligent shipping technologies and green port construction applications within sustainable maritime transport are discussed. Finally, the review discusses the existing challenges and opportunities of sustainable maritime transport from a theoretical and practical perspective. The research shows that, in terms of intelligent shipping technology, data security and multi-source data are the focus that people need to pay attention to in the future; a trajectory prediction for different climates and different ship types is also an area for future research. In terms of green ports, Cold Ironing (CI) is one of the key points of the green port strategy, and how to drive stakeholders to build sustainable green ports efficiently and economically is the future developmental direction. This review serves to enhance researchers’ comprehension of the current landscape and progression trajectory of intelligent shipping technologies, thereby fostering the continued advancement and exploration in this vital domain.

To systematically review the research progress, methodological frameworks, and application characteristics of energy management technologies for All-Electric Ships (AES), this review provides a comprehensive and critical survey of studies published over the past two decades, following the technical trajectory of multi-energy coupling–multi-objective optimization–engineering-oriented operation. Based on a structured analysis of representative literature, the review first elucidates the overall architecture and operational characteristics of AES energy systems from a system-level perspective, highlighting their core advantages as “mobile microgrids” in terms of multi-energy coordination and dispatch flexibility. On this basis, a structured classification framework for energy management strategies is established, and the theoretical foundations, applicable scenarios, and engineering feasibility of rule-based, optimization-based, uncertainty-aware, and intelligent/data-driven approaches are comparatively reviewed and discussed. Furthermore, focusing on key research themes—including multi-energy system optimization, ship–port–microgrid coordinated operation, battery safety and lifetime-oriented management, and real-time energy management strategies—the review synthesizes the main findings and engineering validation progress reported in recent studies. The analysis indicates that, with the integration of fuel cells, renewable energy sources, and Hybrid Energy Storage Systems (HESS), energy management for AES has evolved from a single power allocation problem into a system-level optimization challenge involving multiple time scales, multiple objectives, and diverse sources of uncertainty. Optimization-based and Model Predictive Control (MPC) methods have shown promising performance in many simulation and pilot-scale studies for improving energy efficiency and emission performance, while robust optimization and data-driven approaches offer useful support for enhancing operational resilience, prediction capability, and decision quality under complex and uncertain conditions. These advances collectively contribute to the environmental, economic, and operational sustainability of maritime transport by reducing greenhouse gas emissions, extending equipment lifetime, and enabling efficient integration of renewable energy sources. At the same time, the current literature still reveals important limitations related to model fidelity, data availability, validation maturity, and the gap between methodological sophistication and practical deployment. Overall, an increasingly structured but still evolving research framework has emerged in this field. Future research should further strengthen ship–port–microgrid coordinated energy management frameworks, develop system-level optimization methods that integrate safety constraints and uncertainty, and advance intelligent Energy Management Systems (EMS) oriented toward sustainable zero-carbon shipping objectives.