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Icon of the Seas cruise ship is built to run on liquefied natural gas
NY:
The world’s largest cruise ship is set for its maiden voyage on Saturday, but environmental groups are concerned that the liquefied natural gas-powered ship (and other giant cruise ships to follow) will leak harmful methane into the atmosphere.
Royal Caribbean International’s Icon of the Seas sets sail from Miami with capacity for 8,000 passengers on 20 decks, taking advantage of the growing popularity of cruising.
The ship is built to run on liquefied natural gas (LNG), which burns cleaner than traditional marine fuel but poses greater risks of methane emissions. Environmental groups say the methane leak from the ship’s engines is an unacceptable risk to the climate because of its harmful short-term effects.
“It’s a step in the wrong direction,” said Bryan Comer, director of the Marine Program at the International Council on Clean Transportation (ICCT), an environmental policy think tank.
“We estimate that using LNG as a marine fuel emits more than 120% more greenhouse gas emissions over its life cycle than marine diesel,” he said.
In terms of warming effects, methane is 80 times worse over 20 years than carbon dioxide, making reducing those emissions key to curbing global warming.
Cruise ships like Icon of the Seas use low-pressure dual-fuel engines that leak methane into the atmosphere during the combustion process, known as “methane slip,” according to industry experts. There are two other engines used on bulk carriers or container ships that emit less methane but are too tall to fit on a cruise ship.
Royal Caribbean says its new ship is 24% more carbon efficient than global shipping regulator the International Maritime Organization (IMO) requires.
LNG emits fewer greenhouse gases than the very low sulfur fuel oil (VLSFO) that powers most of the world’s maritime fleet, said Steve Esau, chief operating officer of Sea-LNG, an industry advocacy organization. .
Cruise engines convert natural gas into power in a cylinder, where it is “important to make sure that all the natural gas is converted into power,” said Juha Kytola, director of R&D and Engineering at Wartsila, which developed the cruise engines. cruise.
What is not converted can escape into the atmosphere during the combustion process, he said, adding that Wartsila’s natural gas engine technology emits 90% less methane than 20 or 30 years ago.
Cruise ship engines have an estimated methane slippage of 6.4% on average, according to 2024 research funded by the ICCT and other partners. The IMO assumes a methane slippage of 3.5%.
“Methane is coming under increased scrutiny,” said Anna Barford, a Canadian shipping activist at Stand Earth, a non-profit organization, noting that last summer the IMO said its efforts to reduce greenhouse gases greenhouse effect included addressing methane emissions.
Of the 54 ships on order from January 2024 to December 2028, 63% are expected to be powered by LNG, according to the Cruise Lines International Association. Currently, around 6% of the 300 cruise ships sailing are powered by LNG.
Newer cruise ships are being designed to run on traditional marine diesel, LNG, or alternatives like bioLNG that only account for a fraction of U.S. fuel consumption.
Royal Caribbean will use different fuels as the market evolves, said Nick Rose, the company’s vice president of environmental, social and governance.
“LNG is a piece of our current strategy,” he said.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated channel.)