Cleaner emissions
Carnival Corp. improves exhaust cleaning.
Cruise operators are advancing initiatives to reduce the environmental impact of their ships on the destinations they visit around the globe.
On Monday, cruise giant Carnival Corp. & PLC announced it has completed installation and certification of exhaust gas cleaning systems on 60 ships across its 10 brands, marking an investment of about $400 million.
The proprietary technology reduces sulfur compounds and particulates from engine exhausts whether the ships are sailing at sea, maneuvering or docked in port.
Thecleaning or scrubber systemswill enable the vessels to improve the quality of air emissions and meet international regulations that place a cap on sulfur content of fuel oil at 0.1percent, the cruise company said.
The exhaust cleaning systems have been installed and certified on vessels from eight of Carnival’s cruise brands. They include 17 ships from Carnival Cruise Line, 13 from Holland America Line, 10 from Princess Cruises, seven from Costa Cruises, and five fromAIDA Cruises.
Other vessels in Carnival’s 102-ship fleet will receive the scrubbers in coming years.
“Due to the success we have had with improving air quality with our systems, we have expanded our commitment to install and deploy this technology from an original 32 vessels to over 85 through the end of 2020,” said Mike Kaczmarek, vice president of corporate marine technology, in a news release.
Carnival Corp. is also building new ships that will be powered solely by liquefied natural gas, considered the cleanest-burning fossil fuel. The first of its seven LNG-powered vessels is expected to debut in 2019.
Various organizations have called on the industry to find ways to clean up emissions fromships.
Other companies including Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd., MSC Cruises and Norwegian Cruise Line are taking steps to reduce the carbon footprints of their ships either through scrubber technology and/or by adding future LNG-powered ships.
Last October, Royal Caribbean announced a new Icon-class of LNG-fueled ships, with the first vessels slated for delivery in mid-2022 and mid-2024. Those Icon ships will join its namesake Royal Caribbean International cruise brand. This year, the line will begin testing fuel cell technology on one of its existing Oasisclass ships.
As of September, Norwegian had outfitted three ships with gas scrubber technology, and said it was on track to reduce its global sulfur cap from 3.5 percent to 0.5 percent by 2020.
Swiss-based MSC Cruises, which operates its North American division from Fort Lauderdale, said last April it planned to build up to four new LNG-powered ships, with the first two to be delivered in 2022 and 2024.