Wartsila to upgrade world’s largest residential ship

The World in Hong Kong

JANUARY 20, 2016 — The World, the largest residential ship on the seas, is to be retrofitted with a Wärtsilä Advanced Wastewater treatment system and a Wärtsilä Nacos Platinum system for navigation and external communication purposes.

The wastewater solution will replace an existing system and keep the vessel in full compliance with the IMO requirements concerning the prevention of pollution from ships.

Delivered by Norwegian shipbuilder Fosen Yards in 2002, the 644 ft ship houses 165 individual “homes,” is owned by its residents and is managed by ROW Management Ltd based in Fort Lauderdale, FL. The contract with Wärtsilä was signed in November. The equipment is scheduled for delivery in April, 2016.

Wärtsilä Hamworthy Membrane BioReactor (MBR) solutions are designed to facilitate the management and treatment of both “gray” and “black” wastewater, and to monitor discharges to the sea. The Wärtsilä system treats black and gray water so that the effluent can meet the most stringent marine discharge standards across the globe, including the latest nutrients removal requirements in the Baltic Sea.

The navigation retrofit will also replace an earlier system and will ensure that the vessel has the latest and most technically advanced system available.

The Wärtsilä Nacos Platinum system’s combination of integrated voyage planning, monitoring, and track control is designed to significantly reduces the workload for navigators, while improving navigational safety.The system to be supplied as part of this order includes the integration of an ice radar.

The World is powered by Wärtsilä main and auxiliary engines — two 12-cylinder and three 8-cylinder Wärtsilä 32 engines.

“We at Wärtsilä are committed to assisting marine industry operators to reduce their environmental impact and to increase their operational efficiency. These goals are being met with this contract. The MBR system being supplied for this very special vessel will enable it to comply with the very stringent regulations relating to wastewater discharge. Being a retrofit project, we had to design the system to fit the existing space. This created something of a design challenge, but our experience and know-how allowed us to meet the customer’s needs and provide an optimal solution. Similarly, the navigational system represents the very latest technology,” says Juha Kytölä, Vice President, Environmental Solutions, Wärtsilä.