Wärtsilä is supplying 12 EnviroEngines for four cruise ships contracted by P&O Princess Cruises. Wärtsilä EnviroEngines offer environmentally friendly and economical way of using fossil fuel for power production. They employ electronically-controlled common-rail fuel injection to provide optimum combustion over the entire load range, to give the particular benefit of no visible smoke at any load and when starting or during transient load changes. They also employ electronically controlled direct water injection to achieve the low NOx emission value of 6 g/kWh. These EnviroEngines for P&O Princess Cruises are the first to incorporate both technologies.

The smokeless operation of EnviroEngines is of particular attraction to P&O Princess Cruises, as it meets the need for a clear engine exhaust when operating in environmentally sensitive areas such as Alaska. P&O Princess Cruises has worked closely with Wärtsilä over the last few years to support the development of these engines which represent the “state of the art” in terms of diesel engine technology.

Two ships are being built at Chantiers de l’Atlantique in France, with delivery scheduled in 2002 and 2003. They will each have two Wärtsilä 16V46 EnviroEngines, each delivering 16,800 kW at 514 rev/min. The ships will be named respectively “Coral Princess” and “Island Princess”. When delivered, the “Coral Princess” will be the first vessel to enter service with fully-fledged EnviroEngines. Two ships, the “Diamond Princess” and “Sapphire Princess”, are also being built at Mitsubishi Heavy Industries in Japan. They are due for delivery from the Nagasaki yard in 2003 and 2004 respectively. These ships will each be equipped with two Wärtsilä 9L46 and two Wärtsilä 8L46 EnviroEngines. The nine-cylinder engines are rated at 9,450 kW output each at 514 rev/min and the eight-cylinder engines 8,400 kW at the same speed.