Langh Tech Scrubbers Set for Installation on Norwegian Cruise Ships

Langh Tech says its hybrid type scrubber systems will be featured on two Norwegian Cruise Line newbuildings. 

Oy Langh Tech Ab (Langh Tech) Friday announced that its hybrid scrubber systems will be featured on two Norwegian Cruise Line (NCL) newbuildings of the Breakaway Plus class under construction at Meyer Werft GmbH (Meyer Werft) in Papenburg, Germany.

The delivery is said to include scrubber units for each of the vessels' five engines, as well as treatment plants for the scrubber water.

Laura Langh-Lagerlöf, Commercial Director of Langh Tech, notes that the scrubber tower has been designed by Langh Tech, but will be manufactured by the shipyard, while components for the systems' water treatment plants will be manufactured at Lang Tech's production facility at Piikkiö, Finland before delivery to the shipyard.

"The waste contains virtually no water at all, making it easy to store and transport for processing in land based waste treatment plants," Langh-Lagerlöf said of the water treatment technology.

Before receiving the scrubber systems order for the NCL vessels, Lang Tech says it delivered water treatment systems for scrubber water for use on several scrubber retrofits on vessels within the fleets of both Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. (Royal Caribbean) and Celebrity Cruises.

"We have seen a positive trend in the demand of such investments for cruise vessels. We have put a lot of effort in entering this sector, as there seems to be a demand for scrubber solutions especially on newbuildings," said Langh-Lagerlöf.

"After all, many cruise vessels operate in ECA and despite low prices on low sulphur MDO and MGO there is still a large price gap to the benefit of HFO."

As a Ship & Bunker analysis earlier this year showed, while the dollar premium for MGO relative to HFO has gone down, in relative terms, MGO is getting much more expensive.