New greentechnologyinstalled inPont-Aven

The firm has spent £60m on green fleet technology and has installed the devices on six cruise ferries.

The vast and technically-complex exhaust systems strip sulphur from funnel emissions and significantly cut particulate output.

Pont-Aven, which carries up to 2,400 passengers from Portsmouth to Spain, France and Ireland, was the last to return to service. Work to Pont-Aven was carried out at the Gdansk shipyard in Poland, and her scrubbers will be fine-tuned by engineers.

When the requirement to introduce the scrubbers was revealed, Brittany Ferries said it feared the extra costs could see the company fold.

But Mike Bevens, Brittany Ferries group commercial director, said: ‘These aims have always been framed by a will to respect the environments in which we operate and this significant investment is testament to our ongoing commitment.’