The cruise liner »MSC Fantasia«, owned by MSC Cruises, has received the Marine Equipment Directive (MED )certificate from Bureau Veritas after being retrofitted with SOx exhaust gas cleaning systems by Yara Marine Technologies.
This certifies that the new [ds_preview]equipment is fully in line with the EU Marine Equipment Directive requirements.
»MSC Fantasia« and »MSC Preziosa« are the fleet’s first ships to be retrofitted with hybrid Yara Marine Technologies’ SOx exhaust gas cleaning systems. This equipment cleans the ship’s exhaust gases in accordance with the strictest International Maritime Organization’s 0.1 % Emission Control Area (ECA) requirements. It also guarantees compliance with the upcoming 0.5 % global sulphur cap requirement that will come into force in 2020, MSC Cruises informs.
The project was led by a team from STX France, the yard that originally built the two vessels. The installation of the process equipment was completed with the ship in full operation, while the dry dock operations, namely the exhaust gas cleaning system installation, were carried out at Fincantieri’s shipyard in Palermo.
Exhaust gas cleaning systems for other MSC cruiser
»MSC Preziosa«, the second MSC Cruises ship to have undergone this programme, is scheduled for sea trials during the first week of May, aiming to receive her MED certificate by mid-June. Other ships in MSC Cruises’ fleet are set to be retrofitted with exhaust gas cleaning systems in coming years, ahead of the entry into force of the new international sulphur emissions requirements in January 2020. MSC Cruises stated.
