Yara Marine Technologies’ hybrid scrubber will enable ship to meet sulphur limits
By
Rebecca Gibson |
MSC Fantasia has become the first MSC Cruises ship to earn Marine Equipment Directive (MED) certification from Bureau Veritas after being retrofitted with an exhaust gas cleaning system (scrubber) from Yara Marine Technologies.
Yara Marine’s hybrid scrubber will clean MSC Fantasia’s exhaust gases in accordance with the International Maritime Organization’s 0.1% Emission Control Area requirements. It will also enable the vessel to comply with the 0.5% global sulphur cap from 2020. Bureau Veritas has certified that this system has passed the MARPOL test and is compliant with the European Union’s MED requirements.
“We are very happy that MSC Cruises has received the MED Certificate from Bureau Veritas for the first cruise ship that has been retrofitted with our exhaust gas cleaning systems,” said Kai Latun, Yara Marine’s vice president of Sales and Marketing. “This certifies that MSC Fantasia’s systems run according to design and are ready to comply with the upcoming global sulphur regulations from 2020.”
The project was led by a team from STX France – which originally built MSC Fantasia – and the process equipment was installed while the ship was in operation. Fincantieri then fitted the scrubber during a dry dock at its shipyard in Palermo, Italy.
MSC Preziosa has also been retrofitted with a scrubber and will undergo sea trials in the first week of May with the aim of receiving MED certification by mid-June. Other ships in MSC Cruises’ fleet are set to be retrofitted with scrubbers ahead of the January 2020 sulphur cap.
“Innovation and respect for the environment are core values for our company and absolutely central to how we design, build and develop our ships,” said Emilio La Scala, president and managing director of MSC Cruises’ Technical Department. “For this reason, we are pleased to have received Bureau Veritas’ MED Certificate for our first vessel as we continue to work to meet existing, as well as upcoming, international sulphur emissions requirements.”