The Maritime Executive
Construction started right this moment in Turku, Finland on the primary massive cruise ship designed to be methanol-ready for future conversion to what’s thought-about one of many next-generation fuels for the business. Being constructed for Germany’s TUI Cruises, the ship marks a milestone for the cruise business and for its builder Meyer Turku, which has additionally been a pioneer in massive LNG-fueled cruise ships. To date, solely a handful of vessels in the world are able to operating on methanol, whereas Maersk and several other others in container transport have been main the business with orders for methanol-fueled ships.
TUI and Meyer Turku introduced throughout the first metal slicing ceremony right this moment on the Finnish shipyard that the brand new construct, Mein Schiff 7, has tailored its design to develop into the primary methanol-ready cruise ship. The 111,500 gross ton cruise ship, which is because of enter service in 2024, will probably be a sister to 2 earlier builds at Meyer Turku delivered in 2018 and 2019. No particulars had been supplied on the alterations that will probably be made in the propulsion methods to accommodate the longer term gasoline however they famous that it will have the ability to function on methanol or bio-methanol when the gasoline turns into accessible.
“The decision to prepare Mein Schiff 7 for a methanol drive is an important investment in the future for us,” mentioned Wybcke Meier, CEO of TUI Cruises, a three way partnership between Germany’s TUI Group and the Royal Caribbean Group. “Mein Schiff 7 will take us forward in our work for more environmentally friendly cruise tourism. The ship will be built so that it can be used with methanol. In addition, the ship’s operations in the port are almost emission-free. Mein Schiff 7 is an important milestone in our efforts to provide the first climate-neutral cruises by 2030.”
According to the cruise line, important components of the Mein Schiff idea, together with a excessive proportion of out of doors and balcony cabins, a big collection of eating places and bars, spacious out of doors areas, and the spa and sports activities areas with a pool that’s over 90 toes lengthy will stay unchanged on the brand new cruise ship. It will probably be 1,035 toes in size with lodging for two,894 passengers (double occupancy) with a crew of roughly 1,000.
“We have once more been specializing in optimizing the design in regards to vitality effectivity and applied sciences to extend sustainability to make this ship the best in all the sequence,” feedback Tim Meyer, CEO of Meyer Turku.
The cruise ship will initially be operated with lower-emission marine diesel and is being outfitted with catalytic converters and a shore energy connection. According to TUI, this ensures virtually zero-emission ship operation whereas the ship is in port, which will probably be about 40 % of its working time. To obtain much more environment friendly waste processing, Mein Schiff 7 may also be outfitted with a system that may shred natural waste by thermal remedy and put together it for additional use on land.
Meyer Turku has additionally been pioneering in constructing LNG-fueled cruise ships. They delivered the Costa Smeralda in 2019 and since then the Mardi Gras and Costa Toscana. The Carnival Celebration is at present nearing completion and the yard is constructing the Icon of the Seas which is able to develop into Royal Caribbean International’s first LNG-fueled cruise ship. Two sister ships in the Icon class are due for supply in 2024 and 2025.
The Mein Schiff 7 is the final of the Mein Schiff cruise ships at present on order from the Finnish yard. Meyer has been constructing cruise ships for TUI for the previous decade. The cruise line additionally has two LNG-fueled cruise ships at present on order from Fincantieri in Italy due for supply by 2026.