Royal Caribbean to cut emissions on 19 ships

Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. will use new pollution-reducing scrubbers to "meet or exceed" environmental standards, officials said.

The company announced plans to retrofit 13 Royal Caribbean and six Celebrity Cruises ships with scrubber technology, each installation taking about eight months.

The scrubbers will reduce the sulfur dioxide emissions generated by ships' diesel engines by more than 97%, officials said.

The installation of the technology will take place between 2015 and 2017.

The move is ahead of new International Maritime Organization Emission Control Area standards and complies with existing European Union standards, the line said.

Another option would have been switching to a fuel with lower sulfur content, but Royal officials said supplies of lower-sulfur fuels are limited in some areas where the line's ships sail.

Carnival Corporation (with its various brands including Carnival, Princess Cruises and Holland America Line) announced last year it would spend $180 million over three years to install scrubber technology on 32 diesel-powered ships. Norwegian Cruise Line also announced plans to use scrubber technology to meet the new standards.

Royal Caribbean has been involved in the development and testing of the technology since 2010, officials said. The new Quantum of the Seas was built with a scrubber system installed, as was the company's new German ship, Mein Schiff 3. The Liberty of the Seas has been a testing ground for the technology for two years.

Officials said Royal Caribbean faced "significant challenges" in adding the scrubbers on existing ships, noting that some pieces are as large as a school bus and that each system weighs several hundred tons.

"A retrofit project of this size and complexity — and the scale and intricacy of the research, planning, and design required — is unprecedented for our company, and has required a very systematic process and involved the world's leading expertise in this field," said Harri Kulovaara, Royal Caribbean's executive vice president, Maritime.

Royal Caribbean will get the scrubbers from Swedish company Alfa Laval and Finnish company Wartsila. For a deck-by-deck look inside a Royal Caribbean ship, click through the carousel below.