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September 2012www.marinelink.com 31a lot of synergies were found between propulsion and engine product develop- ment. There is a need for integrated sys- tems on board of a marine vessel. Tonon When you look at the messageswe are giving here at SMM it is ?Your shorter route to profits.? So I think in R&D we have become much closer to the operational and economic challenges ofour customers (whether shore-based orsea-based). In this respect we are exposed much more to the entire business model of out clients. So we have to think two or three times when we are developing our products, about we are going to improve the business of our customers. However, with all the above considerations, within R&D we have to develop cutting edges technologies to be fit in our products so to satisfy tomorrow?s needs of our cus- tomers. What are some areas for improvement? Tonon You can always improve, specif- ically on the efficiency of the research & development machines. It?s always nice to be faster onto the market with new de- velopments and technologies, or to be stronger in risk management, for exam- ple. Wärtsilä is investing a lot in people, to ensure that we receive the right com- petences. The war for talent is very ag- gressive. Securing the talent for the company; there are a lot of people out there who are brilliant, and we would like to have them working for Wärtisilä . When you look at marine propulsion as a whole, what are the top 2 or 3 factors driving your research today? Tonon Emissions; reliability; Capex and operational costs.BoletisAll of these factors in parallel, and without excluding any of those. The environment: Put in perspective the changing role of the environmental issue, and how it affects the work that you do today?BoletisImprovements in efficiency are directly coupled to the operational costsof the operator and the vessel, so we see that things can grow in parallel. So im- proving the environment does not neces- sarily mean that we are increasing thecosts. On the opposite, now by improv- ing the efficiency of the vessel, you can reduce the environmental and the opera- tional costs.Tonon We have been launching dual fuel products for a long time, with morethan 700 DF engines out there in bothland based and shipping operations. The amount of more than 6 million runninghours we have accumulated is unique.. What do you count as the lead technical challenge to DF and gas engines versus traditional diesel engines?Tonon I think the gas engine is a more complicated machine as compared todiesel engines, and we have developed automation and controls for our engines.We need to operate in a very narrow field and to balance between the risk of hav- ing misfiring in the combustion chamber and the risk to have knocking. You need to have fast and reliable measurements, fast controls and we have developed that heavily in conjunction with the develop- ment of new engines. BoletisThe gas engines have different operational characteristics than diesel en-gines and this has to be taken into ac- count into the design from the beginning, so we put a lot of attention on controlsand system integration. You cannot make it only by having the gas technology, you need to have it integrated into the whole installation; how you support it, with for example, where you locate the gas tanks on the vesse. The design of the machin- ery room requires high integrating skills. With the conservative nature of the ma- rine industry what do you count as the challenge to increase the penetration of gas engines into the mainstream? Tonon The first boundary is related to the development of emission regulations. Will they take place in the whole globe? We have environmental control areas in Northern Europe, Americas, Canada but with other areas there is a question markas to when they will join in the more strict control of sulfur or NOx. The ship owners and operators, if they are not obliged to comply to certain rules, they will definitely go for operational conven- ience. What innovation can our readers expect from Wärtsilä in the coming 12 to 24 months?Tonon They should expect a set of so- lutions that meet with their needs, new solutions that are reliable and cost effi- cient from the initial investment and over the life cycle. We are calling our cus- tomers and co-developing with them, to- gether analyzing their business, their needs, and addressing those needs in ourproducts and our solutions. We can?t de- liver something that they will make a good use of, if we don?t understand their business model. Their business is to run their business. Let us take the burden to secure all of the technical solutions thatthey will need. MR#9 (26-33):MR Template 9/11/2012 1:56 PM Page 31