Bachelor Assignment

Cleanliness and hygiene are top priorities in medical settings and for medical devices. Nevertheless, with growing awareness of climate change, a shift in focus to more sustainable and environmentally-friendly medical products is utterly relevant. De Geboortenis, a foundation in the Netherlands that helps pregnant women with delivery and counselling, has also realized this and has started redesigning their building accordingly. The autoclave, a steam sterilizer, is according to the foundation one of the largest energy guzzlers in their building and therefore required a sustainable redesign as well. The redesign proposal that followed from this project includes solutions to reduce the water usage, energy consumption, and maintenance of the device, a change in device materials, and a change in the type of water used to minimize scaling and improve overall sustainability.