Bergen Engines appoints new sales leader

The company says it is taking the route to the marine market into its own hands.

Harloff has 25 years of experience with Bergen products. Starting his career in 1997 working with proactive aftermarket sales, combined with many years in new sales for Marine applications, he has strong competence in all aspects of the engine’s value chain. For the last 14 years, he has successfully led the engine team as a part of the former Rolls-Royce Commercial Marine and Kongsberg Maritime.

“Our customers operate in a very competitive and cyclical business,” says Harloff. “This require us to be fast in adapting to changing needs and pick up on the trends to stay relevant and competitive.

“I have always had a strong relation to the products, technology and the colleagues at Bergen Engines and was very involved in the development of the B33:45 engine launched in mid-2014. Here we did an extensive market research to identify the key customer requirements, which was then conveyed back into the development programme. This resulted in a highly robust and powerful engine, with a flexible modular design, world class fuel efficiency and reduced life-cycle costs, which has become a big success in the market.”

He says the new setup will allow more flexibility in investing in new solutions and establishing new partners. “I believe this will create an increased value to our customers’ operations because we can play to different strengths from several co-operation partners instead of only one. There will now be a direct dialog between Bergen Engines and its customers for both new sales and aftermarket, without any intermediary, which will improve our response time. Overall, I believe this change will benefit our customers.”

With increasing pressure to decarbonise shipping operations, one of Bergen Engines main focuses is to future proof its engines by further increasing its fuel efficiency and fuel flexibility.

“Everyone is asking the million-dollar question; what will become the fuel of the future?! I do not believe there is one answer to this – it will vary from vessel size and -type and regional operation in terms of available bunker infra structure,” says Harloff.

“There are approximately 100,000 IMO registered vessels today. Close to 99% are currently operating on heavy fuel oil and marine diesel oil, and only 1% on LNG. This will need to change to meet the targets set. For medium sized vessels suitable for our Bergen range, I believe Hydrogen could be a niche option due to its share volume needed, but methanol, ammonia and biofuels would be a safer bet.

“LNG will still be a main transition fuel from traditional fuels to the future fuels and is expected to grow for many years to come. Although the current LNG prices are record high, until future fuels are readily available along the coastlines and at a competitive price, natural gas operated engines with advanced energy optimization solutions, currently represent the best option to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from ships.”

Bergen Engines has over the last year started several initiatives on the journey to zero emissions. A €4 million technology study, AMAZE, has been launched to develop the needed technology for a fuel-flexible internal combustion engine with carbon-free ammonia as the primary fuel, with methanol as an optional route.

In addition, tests have been carried out in our test lab running on hydrogen blend, with a contract signed to supply H2-ready gensets to a hybrid power plant in Italy. Last year the ship owner Island Offshore implemented use of bio gas on their vessel “Island Crusader” without any modifications.

Bergen Engines will be present at SMM in Hamburg from 6-9 September 2022 at stand 400 in hall A4.