Samenvatting

This research has been conducted to analyze the current water production process and see if improvements in terms of energy efficiency is possible by using the optimal configuration for different sailing profiles. Water consumption on cruise vessel is higher than on non-passenger vessels. Freshwater can be obtained by means of 3 different methods. Bunkering of potable water from the shore side, distillation of seawater with the seawater evaporator and by using a reverse osmosis system.

Before this research, the method for producing water was selected randomly by the operator’s preference which resulted in inefficient production of potable water. Therefore, the following research question has been made up:

“Is it possible to optimize the potable water production on board the m/s Maasdam?”

To be able to answer this question, the current state of both systems was analyzed by filling in created log sheets on a daily base to learn more about the performance under different sailing profiles. The required energy sources for both plants were determined. All the data is collected in a database and analyzed which formed the results.

These results prove that an improvement of the current water production in terms of energy is possible.

From an early stage it was clear that the reverse osmosis system was the most energy efficient way of producing potable water. However, it is important to keep in mind the various advantages of the seawater evaporators. The most important advantages are utilizing excessive heat (and thereby cooling the main engines) and the ability to produce distilled and technical water. An estimation of the maintenance costs was made and analyzed. For both systems it was found that the maintenance costs don’t have a significant impact on the production cost and were considered irrelevant for the results of the research.

It is advised to use the reverse osmosis plant as much as possible to produce potable water. For the production of distilled and technical water, the seawater evaporators will be used. This is due to the higher salinity left in the water produced with the reverse osmosis system. The evaporators should only be used if more than 3 engines are running to prevent the need of starting up an additional oil fired boiler. In case the oil fired boiler has to start up, additional costs of 3,43$-10,12$ per m3 of potable water will be added by means of fuel consumption.

By following these guidelines and building up buffer capacity whenever possible it is possible to optimize the water production.