Cruise & Ferry Review - Autumn/Winter 2020

“Eleven of our 17 ships are fitted with hybrid versions of EGCS which, although are more costly, allow wash water to be collected in more environmentally sensitive sea areas and held onboard in tanks for eventual discharge at port. Our other ships use low-sulphur fuel exclusively.” MSC Cruises has further plans to keep its emissions low. “Our nitrogen and sulphur oxide emissions will be reduced even further when we introduce the first of our five LNG-powered ships, MSC World Europa, in 2022,” Coppell explains. “LNG is much more efficient than traditional fuels and will potentially also reduce carbon emissions by up to 20 per cent.” All of MSC’s new ships, starting with MSC Grandiosa which was launched in November 2019, must also meet the strict IMO Tier III nitrogen oxide standards, which require the fitting of selective catalytic converters (SCR) to convert nitrogen oxide into nitrogen and water. “This means that all of our future newbuilds will be equipped with both SCR and hybrid-EGCS, or else be powered by LNG,” says Coppell. “We hope that bio or synthetic non-fossil fuel- based LNG will become available in the future so that the whole shipping sector can fully take advantage of this as a truly sustainable fuel.” The company is committed to continue improving its sustainability efforts, for example by setting itself a goal to improve fuel efficiency by 2.5 per cent per year, which will also reduce its carbon intensity by the same amount. “We are striving to reach this goal in a number of ways,” says Coppell. “We are working in partnership with our shipbuilders – both Chantiers de l’Atlantique and Fincantieri – to ensure our ships meet or exceed their design capability. We have developed a ‘twin ship’ system which allows a virtual ship to operate under the same conditions as a ship would do at sea. We can then make comparisons in fuel use and power efficiency between the ideal virtual energy demands and the actual operations. The aim is for those ashore to work closely with our crew to reduce the gap.” MSC Cruises is also hoping to test solid oxide fuel cells which, if successful, could produce electricity onboard its ships more effectively than internal combustion engines. But its environmental efforts do not begin and end with energy and power. “Beyond fuel use and emissions, we are also looking at other aspects of the ship’s operational performance, including MSC Grandiosa is the first of the brand’s ships equipped with both SCR and hybrid-EGCS 1 5 3