MAN Diesel & Turbo has announced a consortium in clean package also featuring Alfa Laval’s PureSOx wet scrubbing system for the Viking Ocean Cruises newbuilds at Fincantieri as well as MAN engines.
MAN Diesel & Turbo is to supply eight engines for the diesel-electric propulsion of two cruise ship newbuildings to Fincantieri.
The company is delivering the engines in cooperation with Alfa Laval who will supply accompanying exhaust-gas-treatment systems (PureSOx) for sulphur-oxide removal.
Each cruise ship will be powered by 2 × MAN 9L32/44CR + 2 × MAN 12V32/44CR engines, providing a combined output of 23,520 kW in a diesel-electric propulsion arrangement. The engines will operate with MAN Diesel & Turbo’s well-proven, state-of-the-art, common-rail injection system, suitable for both heavy fuel oil and distillate fuels. This technology, developed in-house by MAN Diesel & Turbo and fully optimised for its engines, provides superior performance in terms of fuel consumption and smoke emissions, especially at part-load.
Sokrates Tolgos – MAN Diesel & Turbo – Head of Cruise & Ferry Sales said: “We feel extremely honoured to have won Fincantieri, the world’s largest cruise shipbuilder, as a new customer for our engines in this high-added-value market segment. Fincantieri’s and Viking Ocean Cruises’ confidence in realising such a technologically leading and innovative cruise project with MAN Diesel & Turbo and Alfa Laval, our consortium partner, signals a new era of cooperation. We consider it an historical step for our future growth in the cruise and ferry business.”
Tolgos continued: “By combining MAN’s efficiency-leading 32/44CR engines with the PureSOx exhaust-gas-treatment system, these super-luxury cruise vessels can fulfill the increasingly stringent global requirements for permissible sulphur-oxide emissions in the most economical manner possible. This especially applies to the demanding limit of 0.1% sulphur fuel equivalent in Emission Controlled Areas (ECAs).”
Alfa Laval’s PureSOx system removes over 98% of sulphur oxides from a ship’s exhaust gas through washing it with seawater (open-loop system), or freshwater (closed-loop system), or a combination of both (hybrid system). This cost-saving solution enables vessels to comply with strict International Maritime Organization (IMO) regulations by using heavy fuel oil instead of expensive, low-sulphur marine gas-oil.
Because of the typically stringent space requirements that exist for technical equipment aboard cruise ships, the more compact ‘multiple inlet’ PureSOx system design has been chosen where the exhaust gas from each engine pair is cleaned in a single PureSOx system.
Fincantieri and Viking Ocean Cruises decided to employ the closed-loop PureSOx system using fresh water with caustic soda as a reducing agent. The cleaning system will accordingly be able to handle the requirements of any port and permits the cruise vessel to operate in low-alkalinity waters such as estuaries or the Baltic Sea, or other such, sensitive areas around the world.
