By
Rebecca Gibson |
Evac has retrofitted a freshwater generation system onboard AIDA Cruises’ AIDAcara to increase its freshwater production capacity, while saving energy and reducing operation costs.
AIDAcara is now equipped with a reverse osmosis system named Evac eC600 system. The eC600 increases AIDAcara’s freshwater production capacity to 600 cubic metres per day in all seawater temperatures, allowing her to generate water for use in onboard galleys, showers, swimming pools and laundries.
“Ships nowadays rarely run at full speed, making water production from evaporator systems very inefficient,” said Timo Kern, project manager at Evac Germany. “With an evaporator system you have to burn extra fuel just to produce the required water. This is a tremendous waste of resources, and it makes a reverse osmosis system the obvious choice for current market conditions.”
Thanks to the new system’s modular structure, Evac’s team were able to install the new system without modifying the ship. The seven-week retrofit project was completed while the ship was in service.
“We had a very short timeline, but thanks to the very close and good cooperation with the ship’s crew, the outcome was excellent: higher capacity, lower energy consumption, redundancy, with the operation of the ship completely unaffected,” said Kern.
Sebastian Sala, head of Innovation and Energy Management at Carnival Maritime, who is responsible for the project on AIDAcara, said: “Thanks to this new Evac system, the water quality onboard AIDAcara is always excellent and consistent. AIDA Cruises can operate its ship worldwide in all destinations without depending on water from shore.”