Americas News
Four Royal Caribbean Vessels To Receive Alfa Lavel Scrubbers
Alfa Laval on Thursday said that it has closed a deal with Royal Caribbean Cruises Limited (RCL) to sell four PureSOx scrubbers to the cruise ship giant, at an undisclosed cost, with deliveries scheduled this summer.
The scrubbers will be installed as retrofits aboard three of the Freedom Class and one of the Voyager Class vessels.
Freedom of the Seas, Independence of the Seas, and Liberty of the Seas will each receive a hybrid scrubber with multiple inlets, while Adventure of the Seas will receive an inline hybrid with one main engine connected.
Harri Kulovaara, executive vice president, maritime at RCL, says the scrubber systems allow compliance even where low-sulphur fuels have limited availability.
"We chose Alfa Laval and PureSOx on the basis of strong references, a strong technical platform and a strong willingness to cooperate in implementing the technology on our vessels," he said.
Alfa Laval states that the contract was signed in the fourth quarter of 2014, and dedicated project teams from the company and RCL spent a year discussing the technical requirements of the retrofits.
One of the challenges was ensuring that the U-shaped configuration of PureSOx 2.0 could be incorporated into the Freedom Class vessels.
"Space for the scrubber itself was found behind the existing funnel," says René Diks, manager marketing & sales, exhaust gas cleaning at Alfa Laval.
"The water cleaning unit and circulation tanks, which are necessary for hybrid operation, will be located high up and on the same deck, which will avoid the need for an additional booster pump."
The scrubber aboard Adventure of the Seas will also be a hybrid.
Hybrid scrubbers can operate in both open and closed loop mode, meaning the scrubber wash water can either be discharged or retained in the scrubber system.
RCL noted that this was vital given the vessels' routes will take them into US coastal waters where strict discharge criteria could necessitate closed loop operation.
The RCL deal doubles the number of cruise ship orders for Alfa Laval's PureSOx portfolio and follows the company in May signing an $11.4 million deal with a German shipowner to outfit four RoRo vessels with scrubbers.
