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Hospital Verde. GE apunta a eco hospitales y materiales compuestos en Europa

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ORIGINAL: General Electric Reports

Green Hospital. GE targets eco hospitals; composites in Europe.

Friday marked a major milestone in GE’s research efforts as the company’s global research center in Munich, Germany just reached its 5-year anniversary. In true lab-style, the scientists celebrated by announcing three new technology projects — including an eco-medical partnership designed to reduce the total environmental footprint of hospitals. As Dr. Rolf Lucas, President & CEO of GE Healthcare Germany, explains in the video clip below, it takes GE down a major new path as the company moves away from just supplying healthcare equipment to being a total solutions company in the medical field.



The “Green Hospital” partnership with Asklepios Hospital Group, the largest private hospital chain in Europe, focuses on designing energy efficient healthcare facilities. The pilot project will be the renovation and expansion of the Asklepios Hospital in Hamburg-Harburg, Germany. The aim is to

  • reduce energy usage,
  • conserve water,
  • generate renewable energy onsite,
  • maintain air quality,
  • reduce waste and
  • increase staff productivity.
In what’s called a ‘30-30-30′ model, the hospital’s goal is to

  • increase energy efficiency by 30 percent while at the same time
  • reducing energy consumption by 30 percent and
  • expanding the proportion of renewable energies in the energy mix by up to 30 percent.

At the same time, GE Global Research also announced a partnership with the Technical University of Munich for advanced research and development of carbon composite manufacturing technology. The new Center of Excellence that will be formed will focus on automated manufacturing of complex composite structures for use in wind turbines, jet engines, and oil and gas applications. In the video clip below, Professor Dr. Klaus Drechsler — the head of the university’s newly created Lehrstuhl Carbon Composite institute — explains the breakthroughs that lie ahead. Dr. Drechler is standing in front of a photo depicting carbon and glass fiber braiding.


Composites, which are comprised of carbon fibers and resins, are stronger than the metals that they replace and also are lighter weight, which allows for new product designs and fuel savings. The applications that the partnership will pursue include the development of a longer, advanced wind blade for increased wind capture and stronger risers to enable high-pressure deep-sea oil exploration and production. GE researchers are already applying carbon composite technology to wind turbine blades, which could ultimately result in weight savings of 30 percent.

And, as part of the Munich 5-year anniversary, GE Energy just announced a new collaboration with Slovenian energy developer ECOS to install a waste-heat recovery system at a biogas power plant running with GE’s Jenbacher gas engines. In the video clip below, Carlos Härtel, Managing Director of GE Global Research Europe, puts the energy news into context with the day’s other research projects.


GE’s new gas engine-ORC technology is a milestone for the energy industry because for the first time, all of the waste heat from an engine’s exhaust gas and cooling cycle can be fully captured and utilized to generate electricity while consuming no additional fuel.

* Read the announcement about the 5-year anniversary of the Munich GRC
* Read GE Reports’ coverage of our waste-heat recovery technology
* Hear about the composite research from our scientists on their blog
* Read GE Reports’ coverage of the GEnx engine
* Read Thomas Frey’s full blog post about waste heat recovery
* Learn more about the ORegen system
* Learn more about GE Oil & Gas
* Learn more about ecomagination

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