To ensure that medical instruments and fluids maintain a high safety standard for use in healthcare, it requires a sterilization process that entails high energy consumption and cooling water. With increased environmental requirements from the government, it becomes increasingly important for companies to report and minimize their climate impact. Therefore, the company Getinge Sterilization, aimed to develop a method that could present consumption values of their new steam sterilizer.

The aim of the project thus became for Getinge’s customers to easily document and report how much energy and water the autoclave consumes. The project group therefore developed a system that, through theoretical calculations, calculates the volume flowing through each valve in the machine since pressure, temperature and pipe size are known. 

The outcome of the algorithms implies a system that does not require external hardware, where the calculation average on water consumption is 2,22% compared to actual consumption, with an approved result of plus/minus 15%. Whereupon the electricity consumption corresponds to reality. 

Today, Getinge estimates how much the autoclaves consume, but with the new system, customers get almost exact values without external hardware, leading to saving on materials and lower costs.