MSC Cruises Uses Hamworthy for Freshwater

Hamworthy Serck Como has secured a new order for its Multi Stage Flash (MSF) Evaporators, the technology regularly specified by leading cruise ship owners as the means of producing fresh water from seawater to meet World Health Organization (WHO) potable water standards.

MSC Cruises has selected the Hamworthy MSF Evaporator for installation on board its latest 133,500 gt newbuild, which is due to be built at STX France in St Nazaire.

With a capacity for 3,274 passengers plus 1,600 crew, the ship will be a sister to Fantasia, Splendida, and the recently ordered Fantastica, the largest cruise vessels ever built for a European owner. She will become the 12th MSC Cruises vessel for which Hamworthy’s MSF Evaporator has been selected. The contract will see equipment delivered in June 2011.

Udo Attermeyer, Sales Director at Hamworthy Serck Como, said that around 130 cruise ships now feature Hamworthy’s MSF Evaporator technology, representing the company’s continuing strong performance in this sector.

“This vessel is a repeat of Fantasia and Splendida, but the evaporators will be of larger capacity. On Fantasia and Splendida we delivered MSF plants of 2 x 775 tonnes/day capacity, but here we will deliver the MSF 950-8 model, capable of handling 950 tonnes per day of water.”

The latest newbuild will feature two MSF 950-8 units and will be installed close to the ship’s diesel engines. Mr Attermeyer said that that the cruise ship would use the plant to generate both technical water, for use to feed boilers and in the ship’s laundry, and potable water. 

Drawing on waste energy from the ship’s diesel engines, the Hamworthy  ‘multi-flash’ plant solution uses positive pressure to evaporate seawater, producing a distillate meeting WHO standards for potable water that can either be discharged or used as technical water onboard ship as required. It represents the only evaporation principle where heat transfer and evaporation are strictly separated.

Using the system, seawater is first pumped through a cascade of condensers and then a heat exchanger. After heating to a specific temperature (typically 80°C), energy required for evaporation is stored in this stream of hot seawater.