Norwegian Cruise Line has announced the successful completion of the retrofitting of a new Exhaust Gas Cleaning system on two of their ships: Norwegian Sun and Jade. The new systems are aimed at reducing air emissions and, in turn, the ships’ environmental footprints. Early in 2014, Norwegian was the first line to commit to retrofitting six vessels, and has now exceeded that commitment with eight total ships.
The ships’ new lightweight in-line scrubbers are a hybrid technology that are able to operate in open loop, closed loop, and closed loop with bleed off mode. In each ship, five scrubbers were installed, one per engine, covering the entire propulsion system. Together, they’re able to reduce the emission of sulfur to air up to 99 percent, and also reduce 85 percent particulate emission to the air. The system works by “scrubbing away” the sulfur oxide and particulate matter before the emissions leave the stack, to decrease the amount that’s released into the air.
Norwegian Cruise Line was the first line to install scrubbers with a state-of-the-art water membranes filtration unit in 2016. The system uses Ultrafiltration technology to clean the recirculated water during the closed loop operation down to clear water. The by-product is collected and removed in drums.
The line now has eight ships with the Gas Scrubbers technology: Jade, Sun, Pearl, Gem, Escape, Joy, Pride of America, and the newest ship sailing in June 2018, Norwegian Bliss.
