Deltamarin, which has been working on polar/expedition cruise ship concepts, has highlighted two major areas in focus: the use of LNG and other energy-efficient measures.
According to Deltamarin sales manager, Nina Savijoki, expedition cruise ships tend to be small but because the distance they cover is large, these vessels need to have big fuel reserves to carry out the itinerary as well as to fulfil safe return to port requirements.
A solution Deltamarin has investigated while designing such ships is to use membrane tanks for the LNG, as they are space efficient, built according to the space available in contrary to pressure vessels like C-type tanks which tend to be cylindrical and leave unused room in a box shaped space.
Another area Deltamarin has focused on is streamlining of engine rooms auxiliary systems through focusing on the recovery of excess cold and heat (when using LNG) from the engines in order to produce energy for the ship's hotel load.