The newest cruise ships can guest a constantly increasing number of passengers and concentrate their environmental impact on the limited areas interested by their path. The generated solid waste contributes significantly to this impact; therefore, we propose an innovative solution for recovering embedded energy from that garbage. In more detail, we study the feasibility of an absorption plant able to exploit the residual energy of the flue gas of the ship’s incinerator. No payload space shall be sacrificed to install the considered absorption plant. Furthermore, it can be integrated with the existing plants providing for a limited number of heat exchangers. The recovered energy can be used to control the temperature of the refrigerated storerooms; operating simultaneously with, or in place of the existing compression vapors system already installed; it allows a reduction of the CO${}_2$ emissions and of fuel consumption. We show that the proposed approach can be applied to a variety of cruise ships, independently of their tonnage or passenger capacity.

The cruise passenger ship market is one of the most developing sectors globally. In order to satisfy the ever increasing demand from tourism, the number of ships and their size have been exponentially growing. As a result, the impact on environment caused by the increased marine traffic represents one of the most current problem worldwide. The necessity of developing new eco-friendly and sustainable technologies has led to study the technical, economic and environmental feasibility of an innovative integrated waste management and treatment system on modern cruise passenger ships. The benefits of the new configuration compared to the traditional one have been identified by analysing the entire waste chain, from on board production to final disposal, through the various energy recovery and treatment phases. Consideration has been given to the potentiality of waste addressed to treatment, flows, mass and energy balances, and operation of the system, defining technologically advanced and innovative systems and their application scenarios, with particular attention to safety and hygiene in rooms on board involved in the process. Finally, the environmental sustainability, referring to the existing regulations both in IMO and in existing mooring ports involved in the disposal of residual waste, and the economic outcomes of the innovative configuration have been analysed and evaluated.