GE Providing Solutions in Advance of Olympic Games

Included is China’s first-ever rainwater recycling system for use during Beijing 2008 Olympic Games.

GE’s Olympic Feat: At the National Stadium, also called the “Bird’s Nest,” GE is providing its ZeeWeed UF membrane rainwater recycling technologies. The system recycles rainwater for the stadium, which is six times the size of a football pitch, using underground pools that can process up to 119 m³/hour of rainwater, two-thirds of which can be re-used to lower the stadium’s water consumption.

General Electric is supplying multiple technologies for China’s first rainwater recycling system to be located at Beijing’s National Stadium, the setting of the Opening and Closing Ceremonies of the 2008 Olympic Games. To date, GE is involved in over 335 projects related to the Beijing Games in the transportation, security, energy, water, healthcare and lighting sectors.

The stadium’s new rainwater recycling system will use underground pools that process up to 119 cubic meters (m³) of rainwater per hour via GE ZeeWeed nanofiltration (NF) membranes, 80 m³ – or 67% – of which can be re-used for landscaping, firefighting and cleaning – a direct way to lower the stadium’s water consumption. GE’s technology is chemical-free and meets stringent environmental standards for indoor air quality and noise control.

“These advanced water treatment technologies are part of a larger effort to help Beijing implement an environmentally sustainable water management solution during the Games and beyond,” said Steve Bertamini, chairman & CEO of GE in Northeast Asia and China. “Active in China for more than 100 years, we are extremely proud to continue supporting both the Games and China in its effort to adopt solutions that are more green.”

Accelerated Commitment

GE is working closely with the Games’ organizers to provide energy and water treatment technologies conceived as part of ecomagination, a company-wide initiative to develop and market technologies that help customers address pressing environmental challenges. Since the initiative’s inception in 2005, GE has 45 ecomagination-certified products in its portfolio with revenues reaching $12 billion.

Water Technology Greens the Games: ZeeWeed UF membrane technology will help improve treatment at the Oinghe Waste Water Plant in Beijing. The project can process 80,000 m³/day of wastewater, which will be recycled for landscaping purposes during the 2008 Olympic Games. rainwater for the stadium, which is six times the size of a football pitch, using underground pools that can process up to 119 m³/hour of rainwater, two-thirds of which can be re-used to lower the stadium’s water consumption.

“The Beijing Games have helped us deepen our ability to provide complex, project-oriented solutions for our customers,” said Dan Henson, GE’s chief marketing officer. “We have already begun using this same blueprint to address customer needs for other events such as the Shanghai Expo in 2010 and for important projects in other emerging markets.”

For the Beijing Games, GE is:

• Supplying filtration technology for safe drinking water at National Stadium – The National Stadium will use technology from GE Water & Process Technologies during the Games to provide up to 16 m³/hour of purified water per hour.

The quality of the water meets the latest national standards. GE’s water filtration technologies stand out for their environmentally sound features, energy-efficiency and reliability.

• Providing filtering technology for
  Qinghe Waste Water Plant – To improve Beijing’s wastewater treatment capabilities, the wastewater plant in Qinghe has adopted technology that will filter over 80,000 m³/day of wastewater daily to be recycled
  to maintain landscaping during the Olympic Games.

This system is designed to reduce costs and cut energy consumption by up to 30% over the next five years.

Other Projects

Other key projects include helping power a 14-story hotel and conference center that will host media during the Games via GE Jenbacher Tri-generation units capable of harnessing methane – which has 21 times the global warming potential of carbon dioxide – from wastewater to produce energy. It’s also supplying energy-efficient turbines to deliver power, heating and cooling to the Olympic Central Area. And GE solar-powered LED street fixtures and field lighting will be used at the Fengtai Softball Field.

General Electric is the exclusive provider of a wide range of innovative products and services integral to staging a successful Olympic Games. Its GE Water & Process Technologies unit is based in Trevose, Pennsylvania, USA. Contact: +1-215-942-3208 or www.gewater.com