Norwegian Cruise Line (NCL) has completed the retrofitting of new Exhaust Gas Cleaning systems on two of its ships – ‘Norwegian Sun’ and ‘Norwegian Jade’.
In conjunction with the line’s Sail & Sustain environmental programme, the new systems are aimed at significantly reducing air emissions and, subsequently, the ships’ environmental footprints.
The ships’ new lightweight in-line scrubbers are a hybrid technology developed by Yara Marine Technologies. They are able to operate in open loop, closed loop and closed loop with bleed off mode. Five scrubbers were installed in each ship, one per engine, covering the whole propulsion system.
Together, they are capable of reducing the emission of sulfur to air up to 99% and also reduce 85% particulate emission to the air. ‘Norwegian Jade’ and ‘Norwegian Sun’s’ new technology will reduce the equivalent of around 3,000 tonnes of Sulfur Oxide, SOx, gas in the years to come.
The new system works by “scrubbing away” the sulfur oxide and particulate matter before the emissions leave the stack to decrease the amount that is released into the air, resulting in a clean white plume of steam.
Early in 2014, NCL was the first cruise line to commit to retrofitting six vessels and has exceeded that commitment with now eight total ships, the company claimed.
With the installation of the new technology into two more ships, NCL said that it is continuing to exemplify its commitment of applying safe and conservative environmental practices across the fleet.
Norwegian led the industry by being the first cruise line to install scrubbers with water membranes filtration unit in 2016. This sophisticated water cleaning system uses ultrafiltration technology to clean the recirculated water during the closed loop operation down to clear water. The by-product is collected and removed in drums.
NCL now has eight ships fitted with scrubber technology, with ‘Norwegian Jade’ and ‘Norwegian Sun’ joining ‘Norwegian Pearl’, ‘Norwegian Gem’, ‘Norwegian Escape’, ‘Norwegian Joy’ and ‘Pride of America’ and the line’s newest ship due in June, 2018, ‘Norwegian Bliss’.
The cruise line said it was on track to meet its MARPOL Annex VI compliance goal of reducing its global sulfur cap from 3.5% to 0.5% by 2020.
