In conjunction with Norwegian Cruise Line’s commitment to its Eco-Smart Cruising program and excellence in environmental practices, Norwegian announced recently the successful completion of the retrofitting of new Exhaust Gas Cleaning systems on Norwegian Pearl and Norwegian Gem, aimed at significantly reducing air emissions and the ships’ environmental footprint.
“Safeguarding the protection and preservation of the environment is a paramount core value at Norwegian Cruise Line,” said Robin Lindsay, Executive Vice President of Vessel Operations for Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings. “With three vessels successfully retrofitted with exhaust gas cleaning systems in 2016, Norwegian Cruise Line is proud to see this new technology in place to help maintain a clean environment for our guests to enjoy for generations to come.”
Norwegian Cruise Line was the first cruise line to retrofit a vessel with a Scrubber Hybrid system while it is in service with the installment of Norwegian Jewel’s system, which was completed in early September. The new lightweight in-line scrubbers installed on all three ships this year are a hybrid technology developed by Yara Marine Technologies that are able to operate in Dry mode, Open loop and Closed loop. Five scrubbers were installed, one per engine, covering the whole propulsion system. Collectively, they are capable of reducing the emission of sulfur to air up to 99 percent and also reduce 85 percent particulate emission to the air.
Norwegian Gem and Norwegian Pearl’s new technology will reduce the equivalent of approximately 1,500 tons of Sulfur Oxide, SOx, gas in the years to come as a result of this new technology. A lengthy two year project, retrofitting for each ship featured more than 100,000 man hours between numerous partner organizations to be completed.
Norwegian Cruise Line introduced the Eco-Smart Cruising program to help preserve the oceans and to be an environmental steward, fulfilling its core company value of Environmental Protection. Eco-Smart Cruising practices and policies can be seen implemented across the guest experience and in Norwegian’s private destination experiences on Great Stirrup Cay in the Bahamas and Harvest Caye in Belize. Each ship has a dedicated environmental team who ensure that the operations of the ship uphold the highest standards environmental consciousness by recycling as much waste as possible, ensuring safe disposal of garbage, monitoring fuel efficiency and more.
Norwegian now has five ships outfitted with Exhaust Gas Cleaning System technology, with Norwegian Gem and Pearl joining their sister ship Norwegian Jewel as well as Norwegian Escape and Pride of America. Norwegian Joy, Norwegian’s upcoming new build that is currently being custom built for the Chinese market at Meyer Werft, will feature hybrid scrubber technology as well when the ship is delivered in April 2017. Norwegian Cruise Line is on track to meet its MARPOL Annex VI compliance goal of reducing its global sulfur cap from 3.5 percent to 0.5 percent by 2020. All Jewel-class vessels will soon be outfitted with scrubber technology, with Norwegian Jade slated to round-out the class’ installment in early 2017. Norwegian Sun will also complete her retrofitting in the second quarter of 2017.
