CHALLENGING THE STATUS QUO
The cruise industry is booming, but cruise ships are not sustainable – the average cruise ship carrying 3,000 passengers and crew generates 80,000 litres of sewage a day, according to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and many cruise lines use out-dated filter systems, resulting in minimally treated sewage being dumped into the water. Most large ocean liners use bunker fuel to power their engines. This is the heavy, residual oil left over after gasoline and diesel have been extracted from crude oil and can emit dangerous levels of sulphur dioxide.
The Ecoship Project aims to challenge the status-quo and has set itself a radical set of targets to demonstrate what is possible, and necessary for the industry to exist in a sustainable world.
In order to meet these goals we knew we would need to work with experts from a diverse range of fields and that every element of the ship from its hull to its engines to its onboard programmes would need to work together.
We therefore took a whole-system integrated design approach to the project; A concept derived from the belief that elements of a system work best when they are specifically designed to complement, rather than to compensate for each other.
In April 2014, we gathered world experts on naval architecture, marine engineering, renewable energy, energy efficiency, maritime law, biomimicry, and biophilia, for an Ecoship design charrette in Hamburg, Germany. This multi-disciplinary charrette approach had never before been applied to the cruise industry and the innovative outcomes formed the basis of our Ecoship specifications.
The innovative design of the Ecoship was created by Oliver Design.
20% cut of propulsion energy
50% cuts on electricity load
Integrated heat recovery and reuse system
Fuel adaptability and future readiness
10 retractable wind generators
10 retractable photovoltaic sails
6,000 m2 / 750 Kw of solar power generation
Kinetic floors
Aerodynamic shape and hydrodynamic hull inspired by the whale (Biomimicry)
Air bubble hull lubrication system
Natural ventilation
Biophilic design for comfort and inspiration
Onboard plant kingdom and vertical farming
Closed loop water system
Zero discharge / zero waste operation
40% CUT IN CO2 EMISSIONS
A key Ecoship deliverable is an estimated 40% C02 reduction in comparison with a cruise ship with conventional propulsion built before 2000; and an estimated 30% reduction compared to a good current design.
These results will be achieved through the combination of the propulsion efficiency, hull forms, accommodation efficiency, hull air bubbles and renewable technologies, as well as by route, speed and management measures.
This calculation has been done according to the International Maritime Organization’s 2004 guidelines on the method of calculation of the attained energy efficiency design index for new ships (EEDI). It is intended to define the C02 produced per transported unit or, in the case of passenger vessels, by gross tonnage. The result may vary slightly depending on operational conditions.