This paper aims to compare three solutions of potential energy recuperation on a mobile harbour machine designed to carry and stack containers. The boom actuated by two hydraulic cylinders can lift and lower loads up to 45 tons. The current system dissipates the energy during boom lowering through a flow control valve. The three presented systems use hydropneumatic accumulators to temporarily store the energy and then release it during a boom lifting or any power demand. The first system uses only a flow control valve to reach the pressure imposed by the hydropneumatic accumulator. The second system uses a transformer based configuration directly coupled to the internal combustion engine (ICE). This layout allows the stored energy to be easily released but also to be recovered regardless of the pressure difference between the hydraulic circuit and the hydropneumatic accumulator. The last presented system is also composed of a pressure transformer which is not attached to the ICE. This solution enables the recuperation devices to have a rotation speed independent of the ICE but also to avoid the engine braking. The solutions have been modelled and simulated for different initial and final positions of the container in terms of height and depth. A duty cycle has been performed giving for each solution a global view of the fuel savings. The system without transformer showed an amount of energy recovered lower than 37% because of the limitation of the accumulator volume. The second solution directly coupled to the engine shaft demonstrated better recuperation performances. However between 15% and 20% of the recoverable energy is dissipated by the engine braking. The recuperation motor drives indeed the ICE during the boom lowering generating a parasitic negative torque. Besides, the relatively low speed imposed by the ICE induces the need for high displacement units to achieve the rod retraction speed specification. The last architecture showed fuel consumption economy of up to 16%. The great advantages of this solution is its independence of the ICE speed and the engine braking but also the possibility to recover energy even when the lifting actuator pressure is low, for instance when an empty container is lowered.