The hydrogen story so far

In October 2023 our shareholder challenged the Bergen Engines business to demonstrate a Bergen medium-speed engine running 100% on pure hydrogen by the end of 2024. The challenge was accepted.

Our engineers had already demonstrated a Bergen gas engine operating successfully on up to 25% hydrogen blended with natural gas. This was proven on an industrial scale application at a customer site in Spain. Significantly, it was achieved with only minor modification to the engine.

Following that success, infrastructure was installed to safely handle greater volumes of hydrogen at the engine laboratory in Hordvikneset and tests to increase the proportion of hydrogen began.

In December 2024 we were pleased to announce to our shareholder that 100% firing of a Bergen engine on hydrogen had been achieved.

During 2025 and beyond the hydrogen journey will continue as our engineers work towards industrialising our engines to operate on this and other future fuels.

The hydrogen development engine at the Hordvikneset engine laboratory. Running on 100% hydrogen was proven in December 2024

About Hydrogen
Hydrogen is the most abundant element in the universe and is potentially an infinite source of clean energy. However, hydrogen (H) is usually found bound to other elements, commonly H2O – water. Separating the hydrogen and oxygen molecules in water requires as much energy as is produced from the hydrogen released. Today, almost all of the circa 75 million tonnes of pure hydrogen produced globally each year is achieved with fossil fuels. Produce hydrogen from renewables at sufficient scale and hydrogen has the ability to become a zero emissions fuel to replace oil and gas. Currently the cost of producing green hydrogen is several times that of fossil fuels. However, that is set to change as the scale of green hydrogen production increases. It has been estimated that the cost of production could begin to rival that of fossil fuels by 2030.

About Bergen Engines
Bergen Engines produces medium-speed liquid and gas fuelled engines and generator sets are supplied to a broad range of land-based, commercial marine, and naval applications. The Bergen name is a watchword for quality and reliability in its field. The tradition of engineering in Bergen, Norway, dates to 1855 when the original company Bergen Mekaniske Verksted (BMV) was founded. In 1946, the company built its first diesel engine and has since commissioned over 7,500 of its iconic liquid and gas fueled engines. Around half of them are still in operation today; such is the quality and reliability of a Bergen engine. Formerly Rolls-Royce Bergen Engines, on 31st December 2021, the company became part of the privately owned British engineering group, Langley Holdings plc.