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A MAGAZINE OF THE ATLAS COPCO GROUP
At your service
Service Specialist Tomasz Bugaj knows how to keep business and society...
A rental state of mind
Our flexible solutions will get the job done in all conditions.
Chipping in for safety
Find out why this South Korean education center shifted to on-site nitrogen supply.
Clearly superior
Choosing the most efficient vacuum solutions will make all the difference.
Clean water changes lives
Our Water for All initiative supports communities with limited access....
Editorial
A word from President and CEO
Mats Rahmström.
Enabling the shift
Industrial assembly solutions are at the heart of the electric car revolution.
"Ergonomics is key"
Ava Mazaheri discusses force exposures and great product design.
Experts in the field
Local dealers and service suppliers ensure that all customers gets on-site support.
Gateway to growth
A visit to China, the world's
second-largest economy.
"Joint development is the best way forward"
Atlas Copco is part of an ecosystem set up to push scientific boundaries.
Keeping it dry
A 10-year development process resulted in an innovation that changes everything.
Making a difference
Modern society depends on industrial ideas that take shape with out tools.
Making the connection
Logistics Manager Katey Kim supports the world’s semiconductor manufacturers.
No waste, low emissions
What if industrial machines adapted the energy use to the production need?
Perfect vision
Fully autonomous production is no longer an illusion.
Powered up and ready to work
Going electric is an important step toward a carbon-neutral future.
Purpose-built performer
A purpose-built innovation for the booming liquefied natural gas (LNG) industry.
Recipe for success
Explore some of the key ingredients needed to remain a technology leader.
Setting the tone
Did you know that even Jimi Hendrix's performance relied on vacuum?
Smarter manufacturing
Imagine a smart factory where machines transfer data without delay.
Smart Team + Smartphone = Smart Product
Meet the innovators behind the DZS VSD+ dry claw vacuum pump.
Smart tools for modern life
Industrial tools transform the world.
Star of the screen
Chances are that an iXL900R dry vacuum pump made your screen.
Success is on the cards
A data-driven service solution that gives real-time feedback.
Tapping into the green energy market
Market Manager Rasmus Rubycz is ready to grasp new opportunities.
The power of zero
The Z3+ light tower is a zero-emission, zero-noise innovation.
The start of something big
Our first-ever battery-powered drill stands out.
The Missing Link
In the move toward a carbon-free future, capturing renewable energy for later use is key.
Tight for takeoff
Assembling airplanes, the smart way
Turning apples into applesauce
Compressed air is needed everywhere, even when making baby food.
When train beats the plane
When rail balances costs, speed and sustainability better the air and sea.

Ushering
hospitals into
a sustainable future
This revolutionary technology enables hospitals to eliminate the anesthetic emissions that are harming the planet’s atmosphere.
If you were to guess which industries are significant emitters of greenhouse gases, you might think of aviation or automotive or perhaps agriculture. Few would pick healthcare.
Hospitals are running 24/7, and depending on the type of anesthetics used, these gases have a global warming effect that is 2,000 to 6,000 times more harmful than CO2. Today, most hospitals release these gases into the air unabated.
Inventing a way to capture the harmful gases
To address this issue, Class 1, a supplier of medical air and vacuum systems to Canadian healthcare facilities, has developed a solution called Halogenated Drug Recovery (HDR). This patented method captures halogenated (anesthetic) drugs into storage tanks via a centralized system. The drugs are then safely stored for final conversion into a substance that has minimum impact environmentally. A handful of North American hospitals currently have the solution installed.
“Because of the growing climate focus, many more healthcare facilities are showing interest in HDR and our final conversion process,” says Marian Boyer, VP Operations at Class 1. “We will also be able to supply data as to the amount of anesthetics our customers have been capturing, enabling them to accurately report their reductions in greenhouse gas emissions.”
Apart from the obvious environmental benefits, there are financial incentives too. Hospitals in many countries have emission thresholds that trigger fines when breached. Hospitals that reduce pollution to well below those thresholds can enter the carbon credit market, trading credits with emitters that are unable to meet their targets.
Equipment trial in Canada
The research that culminated in HDR began in 2009 with a partnership with the University of Waterloo in Ontario, Canada, that uncovered just how polluting anesthetics really were. That was the beginning of a collaborative journey that proved anesthetics could be captured into a centralized system without hurting the environment.
“At this point we were one of the very few organizations in the world that claimed to have a system that centralized the capture of the gases, so as we finalized the first version of HDR, we started to apply for patents,” Marian Boyer says.
In 2011, as Class 1 began an HDR equipment trial at Grand River Hospital in Kitchener, Ontario, educational institutions as healthcare organizations were becoming aware of the damage anesthetic gases were doing to the planet’s atmosphere. In 2013, Class 1 began receiving several inquiries as to whether the company had a solution for the problem. By 2015 the HDR trial at Grand River was a success: the equipment was able to capture 99% of anesthetic emissions.
Part of a sustainable business
Since the trial, HDR has moved through multiple refinements and is now on its fifth generation. Class 1 intends to continue rolling out HDR across North America before expanding globally. The company holds patents for the technology in Canada, the United States, Europe, UK, India and Australia.
In 2019, Class 1 was acquired by the Atlas Copco Group.
“One of the many key drivers behind this was our common goals and focus on sustainability in general,” says Michael Sue, General Manager of Class 1. “Equally as important are the synergies when it comes to our full range of medical gas solutions for healthcare facilities, which should include HDR as a standard.”
Because of the growing climate focus, many more healthcare facilities are showing interest in Halogenated Drug Recovery and our final conversion process.”
Marian Boyer
VP Operations,
Class 1
The Atlas Copco Group can now offer our full range of medical gas solutions for healthcare facilities, which should include HDR as a standard.”
Michael Sue
General Manager,
Class 1