MSC Cruises may still have only the third-largest cruise fleet in the world, but it keeps expanding in grand fashion.
At a ceremony in France, the cruise division of MSC Group took delivery of its 22nd ship, MSC Euribia. It’s the final evolution of the line’s popular Meraviglia class and the second ship for MSC Cruises to be powered by Liquefied Natural Gas, the cleanest and most efficient fuel available currently commercially at scale and can be adapted to other alternative fuels ad they become available. Onboard, it boasts a range of best-in-class environmental technology, including advanced onboard wastewater treatment systems and waste management handling.
The 6,330-guest MSC Euribia is expected to be the cleanest and most efficient cruise ship in the world, performing beyond the latest IMO Energy Efficiency Design Index requirements, the company says. When in service, the vessel emits up to 19 per cent less greenhouse gas emission per passenger per day than her sister ships which use conventional marine fuels. This amounts to 44 per cent less greenhouse gas emissions per passenger per day than ships built only 10 years ago.
“The cleanest energy is the energy that we don’t use and MSC Euribia has been constructed with this principle at its heart. This is why she marks with her coming into service such an important milestone toward our goal of achieving net zero CGH marine operations by 2050,” said Pierfrancesco Vago, executive chairman of the cruise division of MSC Group. “It’s important to us that our ships being built today are ready to accommodate the new sustainable fuels that are on the horizon. We also want to ensure they can easily be retrofitted with new technology and new efficiencies that will help deliver net zero greenhouse gas emissions,” he added.
Although the vessel can be powered using LNG, the ship design can also accommodate renewable fuels not yet available today, such as green methanol.
Further state of the art technology includes advanced water and waste treatment facilities. MSC Euribia has the latest advanced water and waste treatment facilities to help save the seas worldwide. Wastewater is treated to a very high quality that is of a better standard than many shoreside municipal wastewater treatment systems worldwide. The technology meets the strictest international IMO standards – including what’s known as the Baltic standard.
The Euribia will be sailing week-long cruises in northern Europe for most of the year, sailing from Copenhagen, Southampton, Kiel, Hamburg and Le Havre. In the winter, it does extended voyages that include the Canary Islands and Morocco.
At the delivery event at the Chantiers de l’Atlantique shipyard, officials also held the coin ceremony for the third LNG-powered ship in MSC Cruises’ fleet and first based in the United States, MSC World America. The new ship due in 2025 will feature many of the environmental innovations on MSC Euribia but with additional ones like pioneering technology to virtually eliminate methane slip from LNG when in operation. The two godmothers for the traditional ceremony were MSC Cruise Divisions’ Silvia Turbia and Chantiers de l’Atlantique’s Séverine Blandin.
Wallace Immen, The Cruisington Times
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