Ensuring your water purification system is working as well as it should is vital. Whether in a laboratory or hospital; an effective purification system should not only be reliable, cost effective and energy efficient; it should also be capable of meeting the needs of every application without compromising accurate results. In this article, Triple Red offers 12 key considerations to look for with your water purification system
1. A question of application
The purity of water required for a laboratory or hospital will be highly dependent upon the applications it will be used for. Ensure you carry out a full audit of all potential users and specifics of the potential applications that will be involved.
2. Volume and frequency
The application audit should be both detailed and quantitative to enable annual volumes by water type to be calculated as accurately as possible.
In terms of frequency, there may be seasonal and/or weekly and daily usage peaks which will affect availability of pure water. To account for this, the application audit should include usage frequency to ensure final system design accommodates the highest levels of demand adequately, while minimising the need to store water
3. Know your space and accessibility
It’s vital to check your space before installation. The amount of space needed to accommodate a fit-for-purpose system can be minimised if part or all of the system components can be safely and securely wall mounted or installed on the benchtop or as a built-in system.
Plus, the pure water dispensing point must be accessible to all relevant users and all components must offer easy access to allow for regular maintenance.
4. Correct pre-treatment
The quality of pure water is highly dependent upon the quality of local feed water. It is essential to test and understand the specifics relating to the chemical and physical impurities associated with available raw water and ensure the correct pre-treatment is included in the system design.
5. Data capture
Advanced technology enables modern water purification systems to deliver the required purity and volume of water based on the quality of the feed water and the nature of the application.
Monitoring and recording key performance indicators associated with water production should be done on a regular basis. A system plan should ensure all necessary data will be captured and recorded in a useful format.
6. Suitable storage
The majority of pure water systems require a suitably sized storage reservoir. This should have appropriate-level controls to control filling of the reservoir when required and a hydrophobic 0.2µm air vent filter. The reservoir should be manufactured from an inert material which does not react with the pure water and have a conical base to allow total removal of contents when cleaning.
7. Keep track of consumables
It is essential that consumables such as ion exchange cartridges, pre-treatment filters and UV lights are replaced on the recommended timescales to maintain optimum quality of the water. It is also recommended that a stock of critical spare parts are held on site.
8. Energy consumption
It is possible for manufacturers to supply information on how much energy a water purification system will consume during use. A simpler method to manage energy consumption is to select systems that can go into standby mode, turning off UV lights and other components when not required. Effective systems will use innovative technology to produce water for the laboratory at less than the cost to run an average domestic light bulb.
9. Consider the environment
Efficiency and environmental impact are hugely linked with your system. During the water purification process a percentage of water is sent to the drain. Pure water system selection should consider how much water is sent down the drain as waste and how much is processed into a useable resource. Water purification systems vary enormously in efficiency but to make yours more efficient and effective:
- Evaluate feed water quality for a period of time to allow system designers to optimise system performance
- Design and size the system to suit water purification needs
- Use the lowest appropriate level of water quality for each application
10. Ongoing quality assurance
For quality assurance, it’s important to check that the pure water system you choose, is designed and manufactured under ISO 9001 certification and that it complies with the local electrical and safety regulations (CE, IECEE, UL, EMC & FCC)
