Fuel Consumption

[Captain Funtime]

Lots of threads about the fuel surcharge but no real information on how many gallons of fuel are ACTUALLY consumed on a daily basis. Obviously it varies on the size of the ship. They don't burn gasoline or even diesel fuel. I searched but haven't been able to find consumption numbers. No guesses please...looking for real numbers.

 

 

[LHP]

A report on here did not give specific fuel numbers (in gallons) but it did say that the fuel costs has risen 140% in the past 3 years and 50% in the past 7 months. (I am running on memory...so the figures may be a number or two off...but you get the idea.)

[*Mach*]

I have also searched and have only been able to find recommendations for improving fuel efficiency on ship.

 

Obviously, each ship is different and the fuel burn is heavily dependent on both weather conditions and power usage. The propulsion may be electric but the motors that drive the generators are diesel.

 

By the percent increases stated above I find it surprising that Carnival can get away with such a small surcharge.

[Canuker]

Good question.

 

1. Fuel consumption also depends on itinerary and speed. E.g. a port-intensive cruise will use less than, say, a transatlantic when the ship is underway a good deal of the time. (I'm aware ships also use fuel while stationary).

But, it's called a "fuel supplement" because that is one of the few categories of price increase that Carnival believes it can use and back-date (see ther terms & conditions) on existing contracts.

 

2. Some cruise ships are powered by gas turbines, not diesel engines.

[Schlepporello]

2. Some cruise ships are powered by gas turbines, not diesel engines.

Many of these gas turbines actually burn diesel though and not gasoline as you would expect. The flash point for gasoline is just a tad high

[Chigirlcruzin]

QE2 moves 40-50 feet per gallon depending on speed, water conditions, etc. She has a capacity of 1 million gallons. That's the only thing I was able to find regarding specifics.

[L2J]

This is the QE2. Obviously not relevant to Carnival but then again...

 

 

Engines: Nine 9-cylinder 58/64 (580mm bore / 640mm stroke) medium speed turbo-charged diesels, running at 400 rpm and connected to individual alternators generating 10.5 megawatts each at 10,000 volts. Built by MAN B & W Diesel GmbH, Augsburg, Germany, each engine weighs 120 tons.

Motors: Two 400-ton electric motors, one on each propeller shaft, rated at a maximum of 44 megawatts each at 144 rpm. Built by GEC, Rugby, England, the motors each weigh over 400 tons and are over 9 metres in diameter.

 

Fuel Consumption: 18.05 tons per hour, or 433 tons per day.

• This is equal to six of the ship's swimming pools.
  
• The ship's fuel oil tank capacity of 4,381.4 tonnes is sufficient for 10 days' sailing at 32.5 knots, equalling 7,800 miles.
  
• One gallon of fuel will move the ship 49.5 feet; with the previous steam turbine engines, one gallon of fuel moved the ship 36 feet.

[*Mach*]

I did find some numbers for a Wartsila that's supposed to be one of the most fuel efficient power plants out there.

 

This unit is a 16 cylinder v. the 12 cylinder Wartsilas used on many of the Conquest class ships. The 16, at it's most efficient power setting consumes 1660 gallons of heavy fuel oil per hour.

 

http://people.bath.ac.uk/ccsshb/12cyl/

 

Even if the 12 consumes 75% of that amount the consumption is 1245 gallons per hour. In 24 hours becomes nearly 30,000 gallons per day PER ENGINE.

 

The Conquest has the following engines:

 

4xGMT-SULZER 16 ZAV

40S/4x11,520 kW

 

2xGMT-SULZER 12 ZAV

40S/2x8,640 KW

 

I've not been able to find any specific fuel consumption figures for these engines. The Sulzer corporation was bought out by Wartsila in 1997 and I've not been able to translate the Sulzer engine model to the Wartsila line.

 

Any got any additional ideas???

[Bassic]

Interesting thread! Subscribed...

[Captain Funtime]

We will get to the bottom of this....

 

Cruise lines burn #6 Bunker. There are 256.65 - 278.25 gallons of Bunker C (a.k.a. #6 fuel oil) in a metric tonne. The current price of Bunker C is +/- $500. Roughly $2. a gallon.

 

 

[richfret]

Who the heck let all these Engineers in here? Please close the door!

[PA Dutchman]

Dollars and Cents

 

To put it in perspective, the fleet of U.S. flagged ships sailing interisland Hawaiian cruises (spending 96 hours of the week idle in port) run a price tag of nearly $250,000 a week to fuel each vessel, lifeboats and tender boats. These ships range from about 70,000 tons - 93.000 tons.

 

Most cruise ships are at sea much more than this, and use more fuel from week to week. Much depends on itinerary, sea conditions, weight and other variables.

[Bassic]

If anyone has any rough sketches of how the azipod system is set up, I'd love to see that. I was wondering also what the fuel economy of the azipods compared to the older straight-shaft system compares. I know that in cruise mode, the pods have the props out in front, not behind. From a hydrodynamic standpoint, I'd guess this would make sense...less cavitation, therefore more efficient. Anyone have any info on this?

[Schlepporello]

Who the heck let all these Engineers in here? Please close the door!

Gee. I always wanted to drive a train.;)

[CruiseCentric]

If anyone has any rough sketches of how the azipod system is set up, I'd love to see that.

 

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Azipod

http://www.ship-technology.com/projects/elation/elation7.html

[Snorkel2Much]

Maybe we could merge this discussion with the identical thread the OP started 1 minute earlier?

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=661354