Why no gas turbine-powered Carnival ships?

[nealstuber]

Just a thought but, after the Radiance Class I don't think they ever used it on another ship......;)

Hmmmmmm.......

 

 

First they did it on Celebrity's Millenium Class...

 

http://www.memagazine.org/backissues/membersonly/july98/features/luxury/luxury.html

 

Also, the Queen Mary 2 gets almost half her juice from gas turbines.

[gatour]

Princess also has two ships with gas turbine (the Coral and the Island). As others have said cost rules the roost. Many electric utilities on-land have gas turbine generators but they are used for peak times due to their cost to operated. I think many of these are natural gas powered though and were put in when natural gas prices were on-par/cheaper than other forms of fuel with being environmentally friendly a side benefit.

[mdguy99]

Turbines require a high grade fuel and burn it like crazy!

 

In an ideal world the best solution would be running ultra-low-sulfer diesel (like all on-road diesel sold in the USA is currently, as of 2007) with some sort of scrubber on the stack. Because diesel takes less energy to refine and the technology exists to get rid of a lot of the particulate matter (aka soot) the net impact on the enviroment from an energy perspective would put diesel ahead.

[Aplmac]

http://www.memagazine.org/backissues/membersonly/july98/features/luxury/luxury.html

 

"Green" was more en vouge. Was supposed to deliver less vibration too.

Didn't seem to deliver on the vibration front, and RCCL learned the hard way that folks might like to say "go green"

but they are seldom willing to pay for it.

They're also not likely to buy into the "cutting edge" thing when the can't see it.

 

Fuel went way up, the diesel guys got better, and most of the turbines also got parred with AZI-PODS.

Seems like real world results have proven both technogies to be better on the drawing board than in application. :rolleyes:

While the gas turbine is certainly not new technology (its essentially a jet engine) most of the cogen stuff was more protoypical in nature.

Just last night I saw an interesting 1-hour TV show on National Geographic

about how they "changed the engine" on Radiance of the Seas

-the first of the four GTV's that RCCL experimented with-

replacing it with a diesel generator type unit, to power the azipods.

 

The floating dry dock they used was at Freeport,Bahamas, btw...and that in itself was interesting

 

They never mentioned what the old engine unit was

but they did say it was a bit of a gas guzzler

and so I assumed they were removing the original gas turbine unit?

 

Interesting show!

They also took off the 16 ft. dia. props

to tear apart the pods to replace bearings,etc.

 

.

[mikey0955]

they are waiting for the next gen of eco friendly drive mech..

Ion drives, mass indensity switches and of course Flux Capacitators':)

[Jeffy294]

Just last night I saw an interesting 1-hour TV show on National Geographic

about how they "changed the engine" on Radiance of the Seas

-the first of the four GTV's that RCCL experimented with-

replacing it with a diesel generator type unit, to power the azipods.

 

The floating dry dock they used was at Freeport,Bahamas, btw...and that in itself was interesting

 

They never mentioned what the old engine unit was

but they did say it was a bit of a gas guzzler

and so I assumed they were removing the original gas turbine unit?

 

Interesting show!

They also took off the 16 ft. dia. props

to tear apart the pods to replace bearings,etc.

 

.

They left the old engines in, they just added a little boost in power. It was a very interesting show.

[Aplmac]

They left the old engines in, they just added a little boost in power.

It was a very interesting show.

So basically they were adding-in a big generator

to boost electrical generation capacity.

OK -thet makes sense now. ;)

 

I thought it odd that they didn't give any coverage

to removal of the 'old' unit allegedly being replaced.

 

 

So many of these TV reality shows are less-than-generous with the truth. :cool:

[e150club]

I'm finding this thread very imformative and interesting. I have asked to go into the engine room to no avail. But wouldn't gas turbines put more volitive fuel on board, like a bomb? and more expensive to fill the tank.

[PunkinsDad]

Very cool thread!!!

 

The Navy uses the LM2500 turbine in the smaller combatants and other vessels mainly because they have an excellent power to weight ratio (more weight left over for weapons and electronics), because they are extremely reliable, low vibration (particularly important in the ASW role), they have excellent "throttle response", and they can be changed out, as a unit, very quickly. I was witness to a LM2500 replacement on a Spruance class Destroyer and I was amazed at how quickly it was accomplished.

 

The disadvantages of the gas-turbine, as compared to a comparable deisel prime-mover are, much higer average fuel consumption, initial cost, a much more complex fuel filtering and purification system, and as reliable and long-lived as a gas turbine is, they still cannot compare to modern day deisel plants. Those things run practically forever.

 

A cruise ship accumulates hours on it's engineering plant much faster than any military vessel because they spend a much greater percentage of their time at sea. Even when in port, at least some of a cruise ships engines are always operation, supplying electrical power for "hotel functions" (Electricity, HVAC, water production and so on). Navy vessels, particularly when in a US port or US Navo or allied port overseas, typically hook up to shore power and water, allowing the majority of the engineering plant to be shut down. Or at least they used to!! :)

 

It's an interesting idea, both GT and deisel plants have their advantages and disadvantages, but I'm pretty sure, if the buisness case for gas turbines was better than for deisel, CCL and everyone else would be using them in all the new ships.

[Grenadyr]

I just searched the guide for the National Geographic Channel in my area and found that the program previously mentioned is being shown again...

 

World's Toughest Fixes

"Cruise Ship Engine"

5:00pm 13 Aug 09

[dan40]

Last 2 quarters Royal Caribbean posted multi-million Dollar losses both quarters, while Carnival posted larger number multi-million Dollar profits in the same quarters. Mayhap the turbines aren't so hot for cruise ships?