Meyer Werft Germany, Meyer Turku, STX France, and Fincantieri shipyards have all placed orders with Wärtsilä for the supply of[ds_preview] fresh water generators to a total of seven cruise ships. The orders were placed between September and November 2014. According to the company the delivery of the systems is scheduled to commence in May 2015 and will be completed by autumn 2017. It comprises a total of ten large MSF distillation systems with unit capacities spanning from 115t/day to 900t/day, and four Single Stage Desalination systems (SSD) with unit capacities of 30t/day.
The Wärtsilä Serck Como generators produce the fresh water needed on a cruise ship for deck washing, laundry, cabins, swimming pools, and technical applications that need high quality water. The evaporators, which employ the multi stage flash (MSF) principle, utilize the waste heat from the ship’s main engine to evaporate seawater in multiple stages under vacuum. Every consecutive stage has a slightly lower pressure leading to high energy efficiency. The process is independent of changing seawater temperatures, and very tolerant to impurities (e.g. algae) in the seawater.
According to the company the extremely low salt content remaining in the end product (less than 5 ppm) makes it suitable for even the most demanding technical applications.
