How to select a water purification system for your laboratory?
Selecting the right water purification system for the laboratory is the first step in meeting various application requirements in the lab as pure water is the most commonly used reagent in a laboratory.
To choose the right water purification system there are few points to keep in mind. First and foremost, would be the area of laboratory work you are into and what type of application E.g.
1. Chemistry
2. Biology
3. Diagnostics
4. Biotechnology
5. Biochemistry etc.
Secondly recognize which of the laboratory works would require critical water quality (highest purity), other perspective to look out while selecting the water system is to know how much water your lab requires in totality which helps in identifying the right water generation rates from the system to suffice your needs on a daily or weekly basis. Sometimes this could be referred to as a batch wise requirement.
What other parameters you should look out such as:
1. Guidelines your company /Lab wish to follow
2. Would the supplier comply with those guidelines? E.g. ASTM, USP, ISO, etc.
3. Does your laboratory fall under good practices which demands water purification system qualification like GMP/GLP guidelines as this can only be provided by an expert.
4. If your lab application demands certain critical water quality like bacteria/pyrogen/endotoxin-free water. Some critical experiments may require trace element-free water.
To experience an optimum performance of the water purification system it is also very important to understand what is the source of water available in the lab from where the purified water will be obtained from water purification systems. As the feed water quality may impact the performance of the water purification system. To understand the operating expenses for the water purification system, also look for technologies which need minimal maintenance, reduced water wastage, and less energy consumption.
Other important aspects to consider in any water purification system is its maintenance in terms of cleaning and replacement of filters. Hence need to check for minimal maintenance and easy to use/replace filters. In modern times there are systems available with auto alarms to indicate performance and replacement of filters.
To summarize, select the right water systems based on your Lab application, the volume required per batch of process or per day, maintenance and consistent quality driven. One more additional input to keep in mind for large labs is the peak volume requirement as this may vary from lab to lab. These points would guide you in selecting the right water purification system of your choice which should help meet today’s and futures needs of your laboratory.
