Wärtsilä Powering New Cruise Ships

Wartsila announced it will supply Chantiers de l‘Atlantique, France, a comprehensive package of integrated solutions designed to support and enhance the efficiency and environmental sustainability of the first two World Class cruise vessels being built for Geneva, Switzerland-based MSC Cruises.

The orders with Wärtsilä were placed by Chantiers de l’Atlantique in the third quarter of 2018 and the first quarter of 2019. These will be the first two cruise ships to run on LNG with Wärtsilä 46DF engines and with Wärtsilä LNGPac systems.

The steel cutting ceremony for the first of the two vessels, the MSC Europa, was held at Chantiers de l‘Atlantique late last year and it is scheduled to be launched in May 2022. Delivery of the second vessel is scheduled for 2024.

“We are very familiar with Wärtsilä’s products and they have always provided us with excellent support in new build projects,” said Yves Pelpel, technical director, Chantiers de l’Atlantique. “These two new cruise ships will represent the latest thinking in minimizing the environmental impact and reducing fuel consumption, which is in line with our Ecorizon plan, and Wärtsilä is playing a major role in this.”

The full scope of Wärtsilä’s supply of fully integrated solutions includes, for each of the two vessels, five 14-cylinder Wärtsilä 46DF dual-fuel engines, which will be operated on liquefied natural gas (LNG). The vessels will also be equipped with Wärtsilä nitrogen oxide reduction (NOR) units, two Wärtsilä LNGPac fuel storage and supply systems, seven Wärtsilä thrusters and two Wärtsilä fixed pitch propellers.

The Wärtsilä 46DF engines are IMO Tier 3 compliant in gas mode and are compliant in marine diesel oil (MDO) mode in combination with the NOR units.

The Wärtsilä equipment is scheduled for delivery in mid-2020 for the first ship and in mid-2022 for the second. MSC Cruises is the world’s largest privately held cruise operator and the two new ships will operate worldwide.