Ensuring the purity of laboratory water is of vital importance. Do you know the water quality standards for laboratory water? And how does the ultrapure water machine produce water that meets these standards? Read on to uncover the mystery of ultrapure water and related laboratory manufacturing equipment!
What Is Ultra-pure Water For Lab?
Laboratory ultrapure water is a type of water with extremely high purity and contains almost no impurities. Ultrapure water has very few ionic impurities and its resistivity can reach 18.2 MΩ.cm (25°C). Ultrapure water also removes endotoxins, DNase and RNase left after ultraviolet rays destroy bacteria, resulting in extremely low total organic carbon (TOC). Laboratory ultrapure water is generally divided into three different types according to different application requirements.
Type I
Type I water, also known as ultrapure water, is the purest water that can be produced. Type 1 ultrapure water has a resistivity above 18.2MΩ.cm (25°C) and a TOC content below 10 ppb.
It is used for the most critical applications and the most rigorous experiments, such as high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), gas chromatography (GC), mass spectrometry (MC), and many more. Type I can also be used in applications that require Type II water, helping to avoid the production of byproducts during the application process.
Type II
The resistivity of Grade II water is higher than 1MΩ.cm and the TOC content is lower than 50ppb. The purity of Grade II water is not as good as that of Grade I water, but it still maintains high purity. It is suitable for general chemical analysis, biological experiments and preparation of experimental solutions, and can also be used as feed water for Grade I water production.
Type III
Type III water, also called RO water, is produced by a reverse osmosis system. Although it is the least pure of all pure water types, it is often the first choice for basic laboratory applications, such as washing glassware, heating baths, or preparing culture media.
What is Laboratory Ultrapure Water Equipment？
Common impurities in natural water include soluble inorganic matter, organic matter, particulate matter, microorganisms and soluble gases, etc. The purpose of the ultrapure water machine is to remove these impurities as effectively as possible to provide high-purity water.
At present, the process methods involved in the production of ultrapure water machines for laboratories include reverse osmosis (RO), ion exchange, filtration, adsorption, and ultraviolet oxidation.
The key components of ultrapure water equipment include a pretreatment system, reverse osmosis (RO) system, deionization system, ultrafiltration (UF), ultraviolet disinfection unit, terminal polishing filter element, and control system.
Ultrapure water machines usually divide the water purification process into four major steps:
- Pretreatment (primary purification)： Remove large particles and suspended matter.
- Reverse osmosis（RO）： Remove ions, organic matter, and microorganisms from water.
- Ion exchange： Further remove residual ions.
- Terminal processing： Ultrafiltration, UV disinfection and terminal polishing of the filter element ensure that the water quality meets special requirements.
These steps work together to ensure that ultrapure water that meets high purity standards is produced.
How Is Ultra-pure Water Made?
In the process of preparing ultrapure water in the laboratory, the two most commonly used processes are RO + DI and RO + EDI. The working principles of these two process equipment will be introduced in detail below.
- RO+DI+UV+UF
The RO + DI (reverse osmosis + deionization) process is usually composed of a combination of RO system, DI system, UV system and UF system. The raw water first passes through the pretreatment system and removes large particle impurities, suspended solids, and calcium and magnesium ions that cause hardness through activated carbon filters and water softeners.
Next, the water enters the reverse osmosis system (RO). The reverse osmosis membrane uses high pressure (usually between 10-30 bars, depending on the quality of the water to be treated) to effectively remove ions, organic matter, microorganisms, suspended particles, and dissolved solids in the water.
The reverse osmosis membrane is highly selective and only allows water molecules and a very small amount of ions to pass through. The water that passes through the reverse osmosis membrane is relatively pure water, while the concentrated solution is retained on one side of the membrane.
The water then enters the deionization (DI) system to further remove dissolved salts. Deionization technology is based on the principle of ion exchange and uses ion exchange resins.
The water flows through a reactor containing ion exchange resins. The cations exchange with the hydrogen ions on the cation exchange resins, and the anions exchange with the hydroxide ions on the anion exchange resins. The hydrogen ions and hydroxides combine to form water molecules, resulting in pure water that contains almost no ions. Ion exchange resins can be regenerated by adding acid or alkali to restore their ion exchange properties.
Ultraviolet (UV) sterilizers use ultraviolet rays to irradiate microorganisms, destroying their cell walls and genetic material, thereby achieving a sterilization effect. The sterilized water passes through an ultrafiltration (UF) membrane to further remove tiny particles, colloids and some microorganisms.
The terminal filter uses a filter membrane with a pore size of 0.2 microns or less to ensure that the water is free of particles and bacteria. Finally, the treated ultrapure water is stored in a water storage tank. Throughout the process, the control system of the ultrapure water machine monitors and regulates the operation of the equipment to ensure the continuity and stability of the water supply.
In summary, although the RO system can effectively remove most impurities in water, it still cannot fully meet the requirements of ultrapure water. Therefore, adding a deionization system and a UV system can further remove ions and microorganisms in RO produced water.
- Two-stage RO+EDI+UV+UF
The double-pass RO + EDI process adds a reverse osmosis process on the basis of the RO + DI process, and replaces the DI system with an EDI system to further remove trace ions and organic matter and improve water quality.
EDI (electrodeionization) is a water treatment technology that combines ion exchange and electrolysis processes. It removes dissolved ions from water by driving ion migration through an electric field. In an EDI system, cation exchange resins adsorb positive ions and release hydrogen ions, while anion exchange resins adsorb negative ions and release hydroxide ions.
Electrodes within the system apply an electric field, causing these ions to migrate through the resin, with cations being drawn to the cathode area and anions to the anode area, further purifying the water.
Unlike conventional ion exchange systems, the EDI system does not require chemical regeneration. It automatically maintains the activity of the resin through an electrolytic process, providing high purity water and reducing operating costs and environmental impact.
Compared with the traditional RO + DI system, the double-pass RO + EDI system has significant advantages in water purity, operating costs, environmental impact, and system stability. By adding reverse osmosis filtration, the two-stage RO + EDI significantly improves the water quality. In addition, the EDI technology used avoids chemical regeneration, reduces operating costs and environmental impact, and ensures continuous and stable operation of the system, which is particularly suitable for laboratory applications with extremely high water quality requirements.
What Is It Suitable For In The Laboratory?
- Animal and plant cell culture
- High performance liquid chromatography
- Mass spectrometry
- Plasma coupled spectroscopy
- Atomic fluorescence
- Gel analysis
- Cellular immunity
- In vitro fertilization
- Total organic carbon analysis
- PCR experiment
- Organic compound analysis
- Trace element detection
- Two-dimensional electrophoresis
- Molecular biology experiment
- Genetic experiment
- Atomic absorption/emission spectroscopy, etc.
These experiments have very strict requirements on the experimental water quality. Not only does it have requirements on the resistivity of the water, but it also has requirements on the organic matter, particulate matter, bacteria and pyrogens in the water. The experimental pure water machine can meet these requirements.
What NEWater Can Do For You？
Choosing NEWater will give you products with these advantages:
(1) Continuous operation, stable product water quality
NEWater’s ultrapure water equipment is capable of continuous operation, ensuring stable product water quality without being affected by external fluctuations. This is especially important for laboratory experiments that require stable water quality for a long period of time.
(2) Fully automatic control system
Equipped with advanced automatic control system, it can automatically monitor and adjust the water quality parameters, reduce manual operation, reduce the possibility of error and improve work efficiency.
(3) Acid and alkali free regeneration
The whole purification process does not require the use of acid and alkali for regeneration, avoiding the use of chemicals, which is both environmentally friendly and safe. At the same time, it also reduces the corrosion of the equipment and prolongs the service life of the equipment.
(4) No downtime due to regeneration
Since the regeneration process is not required, the equipment is able to realize uninterrupted operation, which improves the continuity and efficiency of the experiment and avoids the interruption of the experiment due to downtime for regeneration.
(5) Energy saving and environmental protection
The equipment operates with low energy consumption, focusing on energy saving and environmental protection, which reduces the operating costs and environmental impact of the laboratory.
(6) High water quality
NEWater ultrapure water equipment adopts multi-stage filtration and advanced purification technology to ensure that the resistivity of the produced water, total organic carbon, particulate matter, bacteria pyrogens and other indicators meet or even exceed the standard of laboratory ultrapure water, to meet the needs of a variety of high-precision experiments.
(7) Modularized design
The equipment adopts a modular design, which is easy to install and maintain, and can be expanded and upgraded according to the laboratory needs, improving the flexibility and adaptability of the equipment.
(8) Intelligent monitoring and alarm system
Equipped with an intelligent monitoring and alarm system, it can monitor the water quality parameters in real-time and issue timely alarms in abnormal situations to ensure the safety and reliability of experimental water.
(9) High-quality after-sales service
Provide professional after-sales service and technical support to ensure the long-term stable operation of the equipment and timely solve the problems encountered by users in the process of use.
The water produced by NEWater laboratory ultrapure water machine meets ISO3696, ASTM D1193, CLSI C3A4 and other standards, and can provide stable, high-quality pure water support for laboratories, meet the strict requirements of various experiments, and improve the efficiency and accuracy of experiments.
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