MAN Engines to Power Italian Luxury Cruise Ships
MAN Diesel & Turbo is to supply eight engines for the diesel-electric propulsion of two cruise ship newbuildings to Fincantieri Cantieri Navali Italiani S.p.A., world leader in cruise shipbuilding. The company is delivering the engines in cooperation with Alfa Laval who will supply accompanying exhaust-gas-treatment systems (PureSOx) for sulphur- oxide removal.
Each cruise ship will be powered by 2 × MAN 9L32/44CR + 2 × MAN 12V32/44CR engines, providing a combined output of 23,520 kW in a diesel-electric propulsion arrangement. The engines will operate with MAN Diesel & Turbo’s well-proven, state- of-the-art, common-rail injection system, suitable for both heavy fuel oil and distillate fuels. This technology, developed in-house by MAN Diesel & Turbo and fully optimised for its engines, provides superior performance in terms of fuel consumption and smoke emissions, especially at part-load.
The two new vessels are bound for Viking Ocean Cruises, sister company of Viking River Cruises, the world’s leading river-cruise line. With a total passenger capacity of 936 and a crew to passenger ratio of approximately 1:2, the ships are destined to serve the segment demand for small, super-luxury vessels. Delivery of the two newbuildings to the ship owner is scheduled for early 2015 and early 2016, respectively.
Alfa Laval’s PureSOx system removes over 98% of sulphur oxides from a ship’s exhaust gas through washing it with seawater (open-loop system), or freshwater (closed-loop system), or a combination of both (hybrid system). This cost-saving solution enables vessels to comply with strict International Maritime Organization (IMO) regulations by using heavy fuel oil instead of expensive, low-sulphur marine gas-oil.
Because of the typically stringent space requirements that exist for technical equipment aboard cruise ships, the more compact ‘multiple inlet’ PureSOx system design has been chosen where the exhaust gas from each engine pair is cleaned in a single PureSOx system.