GE Signs Expanded Licensing Agreement with Developer of Patented HEROTM Ultrapure Water and Wastewater Production Technology

Pact Allows GE to Offer High Efficiency Water Solutions to a Larger Base of its Global Industrial Customers

GE (NYSE: GE) is a diversified infrastructure, finance and media company taking on the world’s toughest challenges. From aircraft engines and power generation to financial services, health care solutions and television programming, GE operates in more than 100 countries and employs about 300,000 people worldwide. For more information, visit the company's website at www.ge.com.TREVOSE, Pa. -- GE (NYSE: GE) today announced it has completed a new expanded licensing agreement that will allow the company to continue offering High Efficiency Reverse Osmosis (HEROTM) systems to help more of its industrial customers increase their water usage efficiency and reuse capacity as the international community works to address mounting shortages of clean water.“Our new agreement with Deb Mukhopadhyay reflects GE’s commitment to support the development and commercial deployment of HERO and other clean water technologies to help customers around the world address its mounting energy and water resource challenges,” said Jeff Connelly, vice president, engineered systems—water and process technologies for GE Power & Water.A very contradictory opinion exists about reverse osmosis water filters. The arguments come from the fact that this method removes all minerals from water. It has been recently discovered that some of those minerals are essential for our well being. The defenders of the method claim that public water supplies contain only bad minerals that can lead to health problems. Yet world water organizations say that there are many benefits for our organism which minerals provide, sustaining the balance of vital functions in our bodies.If there is a risk for contamination to your water well or you're not so sure about the purity of water in it, you simply can't afford to save on expenses. After all you want to guarantee the long-term health of yourself and your family, right? Utilizing the correct well water filtration system is just a matter of careful research and consideration. Once made, this decision would improve the quality of your life and let you enjoy cool fresh water for years to come.The HERO process involves operating a RO system at a pH level of 8.5 or higher in conjunction with any combination of two or more of the following process steps in any order: hardness removal, alkalinity removal and dissolved gas removal.

“This agreement allows GE to offer unique technology to handle such high pH feedwater streams, enabling HERO to produce the ultrapure water required by numerous manufacturing processes around the world, supporting local economic growth in these regions,” Connelly said.Under the agreement, GE will hold specific rights to market and manufacture solutions that utilize the HERO technology in key industry segments and applications including:GE has a long history of supplying HERO-based systems to customers that need reliable and cost-effective supplies of ultrapure water for production and wastewater recycling. The new pact with Debasish (Deb) Mukhopadhyay, HERO’s process developer and patent holder, allows GE to feature HERO in even more of GE’s growing portfolio of advanced water and wastewater treatment solutions.HERO patent holder Mukhopadhyay is a chemical engineer with nearly 40 years of experience developing industrial water/wastewater treatment processes. GE is the exclusive global licensee for a number of these patented or patent-pending processes for certain key applications, including microelectronics. Two patent-protected processes—HERO and XRO—are being used at more than 150 industrial facilities in North America, Asia, Africa, Europe and Australia. Additional industrial end-users include power plants, petroleum refineries and chemical/petrochemical manufacturers. Mukhopadhyay has a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering and master’s degree in environmental engineering. He worked for several international companies for 20 years before deciding to start his own business developing new treatment processes in 1991.

GE serves the energy sector by developing and deploying technology that helps make efficient use of natural resources. With nearly 85,000 global employees and 2010 revenues of $38 billion, GE Energy www.ge.com/energy is one of the world’s leading suppliers of power generation and energy delivery technologies. The businesses that comprise GE Energy—GE Power & Water, GE Energy Services and GE Oil & Gas—work together to provide integrated product and service solutions in all areas of the energy industry including coal, oil, natural gas and nuclear energy; renewable resources such as water, wind, solar and biogas; and other alternative fuels.