NCL retrofits scrubbers to two more cruise ships

Norwegian Cruise Line announced the successful completion of the retrofitting of a new Exhaust Gas Cleaning system on two of its ships, ‘Norwegian Sun’ and ‘Norwegian Jade’, to reduce the ships’ emissions and environmental footprint.

In conjunction with the line’s Sail & Sustain environmental program, five scrubbers were installed in each ship, one per engine, covering the whole propulsion system.  Collectively, they are capable of reducing the emission of sulfur to air up to 99% and also reduce 85% particulate emission to the air. Namely, new technology on the two ships is expected to reduce the equivalent of approximately 3,000 tons of Sulfur Oxide, SOx, gas in the years to come, NCL claimed.

The ships’ new lightweight in-line scrubbers are a hybrid technology developed by Yara Marine Technologies that are able to operate in open loop, closed loop and closed loop with bleed off mode.

As explained, 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, the company was the first cruise line to commit to retrofitting six vessels and has exceeded that commitment with now eight total ships.

As part of Sail & Sustain, Norwegian’s Safety and Environmental Protection Policy establishes several objectives relating to the environment, which include reducing the impact of its operations on the environment, disposing garbage and waste materials in accordance with national and international rules and regulations, recycling and re-using materials and establishing specific objectives and targets for continual improvement of environmental management programs.