JUNE 14, 2013 — The two cruise ships on order at Fincantieri for Viking Ocean Cruises are to have MAN Diesel & Turbo propulsion packages that will also feature Alfa Laval's PureSOx wet scrubbing system.

Each cruise ship will be powered by two MAN 9L32/44CR and two MAN 12V32/44CR engines, providing a combined output of 23,520 kW in a diesel-electric propulsion arrangement.

Alfa Laval PureSOX system

The engines will operate with MAN Diesel & Turbo's common-rail injection system, suitable for both heavy fuel oil and distillate fuels. This technology, developed in-house by MAN Diesel & Turbo and fully optimized for its engines, provides superior performance in terms of fuel consumption and smoke emissions, especially at part-load.

Alfa Laval will supply accompanying exhaust-gas-treatment systems (PureSOx) for sulfur-oxide removal.

The PureSOx system removes over 98 percent of sulfur oxides from a ship's exhaust gas through washing it with seawater (open-loop system), or freshwater (closed-loop system), or a combination of both (hybrid system). This solution enables vessels to comply with IMO limits on sulfur using heavy fuel oil rather than the more expensive low-sulfur marine gas-oil.

Because of the typically tight space requirements that exist for technical equipment aboard cruise ships, the compact "multiple inlet' PureSOx system design has been chosen where the exhaust gas from each engine pair is cleaned in a single PureSOx system.

Fincantieri and Viking Ocean Cruises decided to employ the closed-loop PureSOx system using fresh water with caustic soda as a reducing agent. The cleaning system will accordingly be able to handle the requirements of any port and permits the cruise vessel to operate in low-alkalinity waters such as estuaries or the Baltic Sea, or other such, sensitive areas around the world.

Sokrates Tolgos – MAN Diesel & Turbo – Head of Cruise & Ferry Sales said: "We feel extremely honored to have won Fincantieri, the world's largest cruise shipbuilder, as a new customer for our engines in this high-added-value market segment. Fincantieri's and Viking Ocean Cruises' confidence in realizing such a technologically leading and innovative cruise project with MAN Diesel & Turbo and Alfa Laval, our consortium partner, signals a new era of cooperation. We consider it an historical step for our future growth in the cruise and ferry business."

Mr. Tolgos continued: "By combining MAN's efficiency-leading 32/44CR engines with the PureSOx exhaust-gas-treatment system, these super-luxury cruise vessels can fulfill the increasingly stringent global requirements for permissible sulphur-oxide emissions in the most economical manner possible. This especially applies to the demanding limit of 0.1% sulphur fuel equivalent in Emission Controlled Areas (ECAs)."

With a total passenger capacity of 936 and a crew to passenger ratio of approximately 1:2, the 227 m x 28.8 m, 47,800 grt Viking Ocean Cruises ships are destined to serve the segment demand for small, super-luxury vessels. Delivery of the two newbuildings to the shipowner is scheduled for early 2015 and early 2016, respectively.