• The first liner built in France powered by LNG (liquefied natural gas), was delivered to Saint-Nazaire on Monday.

  • The luxurious ship, which can accommodate 6,700 passengers, will leave Wednesday morning for Qatar.

It is presented as the least polluting of the world fleet.

The

MSC World Europa

, the first liner built in France powered by LNG (liquefied natural gas), was delivered Monday in Saint-Nazaire (Loire-Atlantique), before leaving for Qatar on Wednesday morning where it will serve as a floating hotel during the Football World Cup.

“This ship represents a new step in reducing the environmental impact of ocean liners.

She is the ship with the lowest CO2 emissions per ton of tonnage of the entire world fleet of liners, it is a world record", argued Laurent Castaing, Managing Director of Chantiers de l'Atlantique, during the delivery ceremony. .

The giant of the seas, commissioned in June 2018 by the Swiss cruise line MSC, is 333 meters long, 68 meters high and can accommodate 6,700 passengers.

“Instead of the ship and the propulsion being powered by fuel oil, we replaced it with gas.

In terms of environmental efficiency, automatically, at equivalence with fuel oil, it is 25% less CO2”, detailed Patrick Pourbaix, Managing Director France at MSC Cruises.

The

MSC World Europa

also uses a fuel cell prototype, with a capacity of 150 kilowatts, a world first for a ship running on LNG according to MSC Cruises.

Ships to replace hotels

The delivery of MSC World Europa consisted of a blessing according to Catholic tradition and a bottle was broken on the hull of the luxurious ship, which will leave Saint-Nazaire for Qatar, where it will be inaugurated on November 13.

The organizers of the FIFA World Cup "were considering building hotels, but obviously it's only for one season, so they looked for cruise ships to replace hotels, because we can offer many rooms, and that's how the conversation started," said MSC Cruises Executive Chairman Pierfrancesco Vago.

"We have chartered two ships in Qatar and FIFA," said Patrick Pourbaix.

“The first two weeks, for the qualifications, the boats are full, so much so that we have put in place a third boat, smaller, which will complete the offer.

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The most accessible fuel

"Liquefied natural gas, it reduces almost all sulfur oxide emissions," acknowledged Fanny Pointet, responsible for maritime transport in France for the NGO Transport and Environment.

But "the promotion of gas in maritime transport is not a good idea, because in terms of climate, it is bad, in terms of energy security, it is bad", he said. she nuanced, insisting that “Europe is trying to emancipate itself from its dependence on Russia for gas”.

“If we chose the natural gas option (…) it is because today, it is the fuel that is the most accessible.

We could perhaps accelerate the transition to hydrogen.

The problem is that we don't find enough hydrogen today on Earth to power our ships,” said Patrick Pourbaix.

“Today, our order book only includes ships that will be able to use either LNG or methanol.

Today, the version that can be described as green, that is to say non-emitting, of these fuels does not yet exist.

But as soon as we have these fuels in zero-emission form, we can use them and we can have zero-emission ships,” assured Laurent Castaing.


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  • Company

  • Environment

  • Planet

  • Saint Nazaire

  • Pays de la Loire

  • World Cup 2022

  • Qatar

  • Vessel