Virgin Voyages, the nascent cruise shipping in Sir Richard Branson’s business empire, said it has teamed up with Climeon, the Swedish technology group, to convert waste heat produced on board its three ships into electricity.
“The smart people at Climeon found a way to efficiently turn heat waste into electricity, saving stacks of C02. So we’re excited to announce our partnership with Climeon. It’s just one thing we’re doing to meet our commitment to launch one of the cleanest fleets to sail the seven seas,” Virgin Voyages said on its relaunched website.
Climeon said on its website that at sea, a large part of the energy in the fuel fed to combustion engines is transmitted as heat to cooling water and exhaust gases, however, with Climeon Ocean it is possible to convert this otherwise lost energy into electricity. “By utilizing your waste heat with a patented technology squeezed into surprisingly small box, you will grow your companies profit whilst helping the environment,” the company said.
“Heat is one of the largest untapped resources in the world with 50% of all energy being dumped as waste heat. With the Climeon Ocean solution on you can convert this waste heat into clean energy. By utilizing waste heat at temperatures below 120°C, the range at which the largest volume of waste heat is found,” Climeon stated.
Virgin Voyages has contracted the Genoa yard of Fincantieri to build three 110,000 gross ton cruise ships that each will have capacity for 2,800 passengers. Construction of the first ship will start next year, Virgin Voyages said.