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 need for faster, safer, and environmentally compatible thawing methods is perceived in different branches of food industry, as, e.g., in the fast-food sector. We investigate a prototype of jet-impingement, batch-process thawing machine, exploiting high-speed impact of heated atmospheric air onto food items. The results of combined experimental and numerical study show the promising potential of this technology beyond the expected increased thawing rate, especially when the proposed two-side arrangement of the jets is adopted. A series of thawing indicators are calculated and used to account for the thawing uniformity and the risk of bacterial proliferation. A computationally efficient two-stage model of the considered thawing process is conceived, which can be used for design and optimization.