10th Anniversary Celebrations and Expansion of State-of-the-Art Water Treatment Technology Center of Excellence in Oroszlány, Hungary

GE (USA) recently celebrated their 10th anniversary for GE's Water & Process Technologies Global Manufacturing Centre of Excellence in Oroszlány. This is the world's largest ultrafiltration (UF)/membrane-bioreactor (MBR) module manufacturing site in the industry.

Since 2002 when the facility was first built, the production capacity has increased by tenfold outlining the benefits for municipalities and industrial users to treat and reuse water.

The Oroszlány facility covers 80,000 m2 in area, and has 870 employees. This facility can produce 250 GE ZeeWeed* MBR systems annually. It plays a critical role in meeting customers’ growing water and wastewater treatment needs.

Many local dignitaries attended the anniversary celebrations at the plant recently including Karoly Takacs, the mayor of Oroszlány; Bianka Nauzika Wallner, U.S. Commercial Service Budapest, representing the U.S. Ambassador; Gabor Rajnai, a former mayor of Oroszlány; Pasztor Bela, mayor of Veresegyház; and Csaba Schmidt, the mayor of Tatabanya.

“This growth of our Oroszlány facility corresponds with Europe’s growing needs for better and more cost-effective water solutions,” said Heiner Markhoff, president and CEO—water and process technologies for GE Power & Water. “It is a tangible demonstration of GE’s commitment to serve its customers in the region and deliver outstanding products, services and support, while deepening GE’s already significant presence in Hungary.”

This anniversary also coincides with other GE anniversaries; it has been 20 years since GE’s ZeeWeed MBR water treatment technology was developed as well as 30 years since the commercial introduction of MBR technology. MBR is a fast-growing alternative to conventional water-treatment methods and uses hollow-fiber UF membranes to separate particles, bacteria and viruses from wastewater, along with beneficial bacteria to further treat the water to provide more consistent and better quality.

The expanded Oroszlány Center of Excellence plant further extends GE’s presence in Hungary and throughout Central and Eastern Europe. All major GE businesses are active in Hungary where GE is the largest U.S. investor and employer and also one of the country’s biggest exporters. Throughout Central and Eastern Europe, GE has 26,000+ employees; four business technology centers; three regional business headquarters; three banks; 18 plants supporting more than US$5 billion in GE exports; 6,200+ suppliers, US$4.5 billion in destination sales and undertakes major philanthropic projects.

GE also announced recently that the city of Veresegyház, Hungary, selected GE’s ZeeWeed 500D ultrafiltration MBR technology to increase water reuse at it its existing water treatment plant. The technology installed in Veresegyház was manufactured at the Oroszlány Center of Excellence.