Carnival chooses exhaust gas cleaning to meet US ECA limits

Under the agreement, Carnival will install seawater scrubbers and particulate filters on 32 of its ships and use the equipment while operating in US coastal waters. This will, says the company,all the ships to continue to burn fuel with a high sulphur content but still meet IMO and federal regulations.

In addition, Carnival intends that its ships will hook up to shore power while in US ports. The move was generally welcomed, but received with scepticism from some quarters. Not all officials, apparently , are sure that the technology is sufficiently mature in marine applications, and there are concerns over returning water to the sea after it has passed through the scrubbers. Also, the agreement appears to have come too late for some US ports, where Carnival has already announced its decision to pull out because the ships based there are not included in the EPA agreement.