Norwegian Escape with Biggest Scrubbers sets Sail

 

On a sunny October day in the German harbor-town of Hamburg, M/V Norwegian Escape, a brand new cruise ship, sets sail for the first time. On board are five Yara SOx scrubbers – one for each engine. The scrubbers ensure that the cruise is not just pleasurable, but also environmental friendly.

Yara Marine Technologies has developed a simple and cost-efficient solution to fight air pollution at sea: the inline scrubber. An inline scrubber is basically a “gas washing machine.” A simple cylinder that replaces the silencer of a ship engine and cleans the exhaust gas, reducing SOx emissions by up to 99%.

To make her voyages from Miami (U.S.) to the Caribbean and beyond as environmental-friendly as possible, the owners of the Norwegian Escape teamed up with Oslo-based Yara Marine Technologies to install the world’s biggest marine SOx scrubber system, with a capacity to clean emissions from 76.8 MW engine power. She has of course also additional environment protection systems onboard for other pollutants (e.g. ballast- waste- and bilge water).

“This particular delivery of our small, lightweight scrubber system was special as it is the biggest operating marine scrubber system in the world so far,” said Kai Låtun, Chief Sales & Marketing Officer in Yara Marine Technologies. “The customer is happy and the environment is protected, and those are our two ultimate goals,” he added.

M/V Norwegian Escape is the newest fleet member of one of the world’s largest cruise ship operators: Norwegian Cruise Line. She can carry up to 4,248 passengers and 1,731 crew- members. Diesel consumption at full cruising load is about 11 tons per hour, fueling an engine capacity equivalent to about 1,000 cars.

“We are very satisfied with the scrubber system delivery from Yara Marine Technologies. The system performs as guaranteed, compliance test was passed with flying colors and we had full support from Yara Marine Technologies during installation, commissioning and start up,” said Christer Karlsson, Senior Vice President Newbuilding, Norwegian Cruise Line. “Yara Marine Technologies also provided expert personnel onboard during Norwegian Escape’s maiden voyage from England to USA in case more support should be needed. Their customer support is impeccable.”