Today MSC Cruises, at the French shipyard Chantiers de l'Atlantique of Saint-Nazaire, has taken delivery of the new ship MSC World Europa cruiser ship that will start next year the company will operate permanently in the Mediterranean with departures from Italy. The ship, weighing 215,863 tons It is 333.3 metres long, 47.0 metres wide and can accommodate 6,762 passengers in 2,626 cabins. With the delivery of MSC World Europa, the company's first natural gas-powered company liquefied, the size of the fleet rises to 20 ships, confirming MSC Cruises as the third largest cruise group in the world, with a fleet in which will be joined next December by another new ship: the MSC Seascape.

The company highlighted that MSC World Europa is The best performing cruise ship in the world from the point of view of environmental perspective thanks to the adoption of numerous innovations, including fuel cell technology, which can reduce the impact on the environment, eliminating almost the emissions of air pollutants, including sulphur and particulate matter, and also significantly reducing the nitrogen oxides and CO2 emissions of up to 25%.

About Oxide Fuel Cell Technology solids (SOFCs) fuelled by liquefied natural gas, of which it is equipped with MSC World Europa, the company explained that the ship mounts a 150-kilowatt SOFC prototype that will use LNG to produce electricity and heat on board in a highly through an electrochemical reaction and highlighted that this will be a test case to speed up the development of the development of fuel cell technology for cruise times, offering the potential to enable hybrid propulsion solutions in the future.

"We anticipate," said Linden Coppell, vice president MSC Cruises' Sustainability and ESG Division – which SOFC will reduce greenhouse gas emissions substantially compared to the conventional LNG engine, without producing nitrogen, sulphur oxides or fine particles. It also has the advantage of be compatible not only with LNG, but also with high-carbon fuels. low and zero carbon, such as green methanol, ammonia and hydrogen. We may also switch to LNG in the future synthetic or other non-carbon-based alternative fuels'.

"We chose LNG," explained Pierfrancesco Vago, Executive Chairman of MSC Group's Cruise Division - because it's the cleanest marine fuel currently available, a transitional fuel in sight the procurement and use of synthetic LNG or other non-carbon-based alternative fuels as soon as they are available on a large scale'.

MSC Cruises has announced, among other things, that MSC World Europa It is equipped with a selective catalytic reduction system (SCR) that reduces NOx emissions by 90% when LNG is not and the vessel must run on marine diesel. In addition like all of MSC Cruises' new builds, the ship is shore powered, which allows you to use the cold ironing plants in ports that are equipped with them, reducing the The use of engines in port calls is minimal.

Vago also pointed out that "this ship is the result of more than four years of collaboration between us, Chantiers de l'Atlantique and numerous leading suppliers in the field next-generation environmental and maritime technologies, and thousands of hours of training for both both in ports. Now more than ever," Vago pointed out We need even closer cooperation with the suppliers, governments and all stakeholders to continue the investments and take further steps towards the future at Zero emissions that we all want. Innovative technologies developed for our ships can in fact benefit from the society as a whole, as well as the cruise and shipping industry. shipping in general'.

Today in Saint-Nazaire, the "cutting of the of the second "World Class" ship, which will be called MSC World America and, when it enters in service in 2025, will be destined for the market North American. MSC World America will be the fourth new flagship to be used in this region.