Alfa Laval’s Anders Lindmark to head exhaust gas cleaning unit

Anders Lindmark joined Alfa Laval in 2014 when he was appointed to lead its ballast water treatment business.

During his time there, Alfa Laval’s PureBallast established itself as one of the leading ballast water treatment solution in the market and achieved U.S. Coast Guard type approval and was first to be certified according to the IMO revised G8 guidelines.

Lindmark followed the success of Alfa Laval’s exhaust gas cleaning offering, Alfa Laval PureSOx.

“In the 10 years since the first PureSOx installation, they’ve developed an extraordinary product and service offering. I’m proud to join such a dynamic team and excited to continue moving PureSOx forward,” Lindmark said.

The PureSOx product itself has a strong performance record, both in terms of its operational effectiveness, but also in terms of its in-service reliability. This reflects the technical expertise that Alfa Laval has developed, having initially developed marine scrubber technology over 50 years ago for use in inert gas systems.

“We have completed over 150 marine installations over the past 10 years, and our systems have a cumulative 1.7 million running hours – and all of the systems we have installed are still in service and fully compliant today,” Lindmark said.

The Gas Systems business benefits from its position within Alfa Laval’s broader business, whether that is in terms of proprietary Alfa Laval centrifugal technology, the company’s integrated component chains (which has minimised the difficulties of extended sub-component lead times) or the company’s strong service presence.

A focus on compliance

Lindmark intends to build on the existing strengths of Alfa Laval’s product, but noted that next year will be important for both ballast water treatment and exhaust gas cleaning, with revised G8 requirements taking effect and fuel changes potentially increasing the demand for scrubbers.

“One of my focuses at PureBallast was transparency, and industry engagement with customers, industry experts and other stakeholders around regulatory compliance,” Lindmark said.

As a leading and well-established supplier of exhaust gas cleaning systems to the market, Alfa Laval was well placed to be able to respond to any shifts in regulation, Lindmark said. The interview was held during the IMO Marine Environment Protection Committee’s 74th session.

The company’s open-loop scrubbers come with the option of being upgraded to hybrid operation, Lindmark noted.

“We want to help our customers to achieve compliance. This includes supporting our customers in making the right selection of product, but also supporting them in meeting regulatory requirements after the installation process.”

One of the advantages of dealing with Alfa Laval is the company has developed data tools, such as PureSOx Connect, which builds on data reporting and storage functionality that we include in PureSOx orders.

A strong market

Lindmark has noted that demand for scrubbers from its traditional larger vessel class markets picked up in 2018. At current price spreads, the payback periods for scrubber investments are between 1-3 years.

Enquiries for the company’s systems has been evenly split between retrofits and newbuilds, although the company is almost completely booked out for the remainder of 2019.

Alfa Laval understands the need to deliver systems on time to meet tight delivery timeframes. The Gas Systems business benefits from its position within Alfa Laval’s broader business, whether that is in terms of Alfa Laval’s integrated component chains (which has minimised the difficulties of extended sub-component lead times), and the availability of trained service and installation engineers.

As part of Alfa Laval’s work to ensure the availability of trained engineers, the company recently opened a new PureSOx Training Centre in Shanghai to help provide on-the-job training to commissioning engineers in East Asia. The facility will also be able to provide training for crew members as opportunities allow.

Lindmark’s successor as Head of Alfa Laval PureBallast will be Peter Sahlén, who has been with the PureBallast team since 2012. For the past five years, Sahlén has served as Head of Research & Development for the PureBallast offering.