Water Purification System - Do You Know Which One You Need?

The most common solvent in a laboratory is water. Without the use of water, only a handful of experiments can be executed. However, a lot of experiments need water in real purity for the performance of the experiment. Here, pure water is used for the purposes like:

• Cell Cultures
• Buffer Preparation
• Cleaning Purposes
• Rinsing The Instruments

In some instances, it is said that the tap water is fairly pure, but it does contain many contaminants that can hamper the experiment results in the lab.  These impurities or contaminants include inorganic ions, organics, colloids, bacteria, and gases. And these impurities just alter the results of an experiment or research.  Water used in the lab is obtained from a laboratory water purifier which produces different types of pure water. All these types of pure water are defined by some standards and quality checks. The quality checks help the researchers and scientists to know about each water type used in the experiment. Not all experiments require ultrapure water (Type I). Some experiments and research work also require other grades of water. In fact for the rinsing and cleaning of instruments, you may also require pure water (Type III and Type II).

As water is the mandatory part of the laboratory.  You should know what kind of water purification system you need for your experiments. Some researchers install a lab water system but don’t know what kind of water they want from the lab water purification system. 

What is Water Purification?

Lab water is used in the laboratories for the experiments. Water purification system for the laboratory is used for this purpose. The water purifiers of the lab have an extensive water purification unit that purifies the tap water or fed water. Here the tap water or fed water is full of different kinds of impurities that alter the experiment results. To obtain good results, as a lab fellow you can install a water purification system for laboratory use. The impurities which are removed from the normal tap water is :

• Metal Ions
• Bacteria Population
• Organic Compounds
• Salts
• Some Colloids
• Nucleases

All these impurities are safe for human consumption, but they are not good for laboratory experiments. To exclude all these contaminants, you require a water system. In a water purification system for a laboratory, there are some levels of filtration that filter out all the impurities and contaminants from the fed water. In some filtration cases, these impurities can also clog the filters which are not good for the experiment and water purification system.

Water purification system for laboratory use is the critical unit of most labs. As the implementation of it can reduce the chances of getting bad results.  It is very important to choose an ideal lab water purification system for all experiments. Every aspect of a lab water system should be analyzed before setting up the purifier in a lab.

Below are some of the tips to select an ideal water purification  system for the laboratory :

1. Know The Type Of Water You Need For The Lab Experiments

The very first step in the process of setting up a water purification system for laboratory is to determine the type of water you require for the lab experiments. Most of the researchers just install a water system without knowing the type of water they want. It will cause problems in the future in the lab experiments. For example, if you are executing any analytical lab experiment, then the requirement will be Type I -ultrapure water. But you have installed only a Type II laboratory water purifier. Then this would leave you in a position of total loss.  So, it is very important to know what kind of pure water you need for the experiment in a lab.

Following are the details of the applications of different type of pure water used in a lab:

Type I -Ultrapure Water

• Analytical Experiments
• HPLC
• Mass Spectrometry
• Cell Culturing
• Gas Chromatography
• Liquid Chromatography
• Preparation of Reagents
• Spectrophotometry
• Radiation -Based Experiments

Type II – General Grade Primary Water

• Preparation of Buffer Solutions
• Preparation of Media
• In Reverse Osmosis Experiments
• Some Simple Chemical Experiments
• Preparation of Sample Solutions

Type III – Primary Grade Water

• In Rinsing of Instruments
• In Preparation of Type I and Type II Water
• Cleaning Purposes
• In Simple  Experiments
• In Autoclaves 

Type IV – Primary Water or Feed water

• Normal Cleaning Purposes
• In Preparation of Simple Solutions
• Used as Fed water for Lab Water Systems

From the above list,  you may have got your own type of water for the lab experiments.  In various water purification systems, you may get the option of obtaining more than one type of pure water. In that case, always give priority to the type of water you need. Don’t be in a dilemma while knowing the type of water you need for the experiment. As with the type of water, your whole lab experiment is dependent. 

2.  Know The Water Purification Technology For Your Type Of Pure Water

The water purification system for laboratory is all set with purification technologies. With these technologies, the lab water system purifies the water and produces pure water. The systems are well fitted with various levels of water purification through which fed water passes. The water purification technology is different for each water type. However, the purification systems can also produce multiple pure water types based on their filtration techniques.

An important point in setting up a water system is the budget. It is highly advised to work according to your budget. The market has all types of water purification systems which range from low cost to high cost. You may check a water purification system for laboratory price in both offline as well as online mediums. After checking the price, you may get an idea of how much a lab water purification system can cost and you can make your lab plan accordingly.  Before going to the budget part, know about the water purification technologies in brief.

There are some top water purification technologies that are used by the water systems. Some are as follows:

Activated Carbon Technology

This technology uses carbon technology with its carbon particles. The water purification system for the laboratory has specific filters with activated carbon. These carbon particles trap the impurities of fed water and purify it. The Type I and Type II pure water type can be produced with this technology. The filter of the lab water system has these carbon particles which absorb the impurities and hence produce pure water.

Reverse Osmosis Technology

This technology is used extensively for the production of RO water types. There is a RO membrane associated with the lab water purification system which executes the process of reverse osmosis.  The membrane is of semipermeable nature which only allows some sort of molecules to pass through. All big molecular weight impurities cannot pass this membrane and hence get discarded. The left water is devoid of impurities. Hence, the water produced by this type of system is called RO Water (Type II).

Electrodeionization Technology Or Ion-exchange Technology

This technology is used for the extensive cleaning of the fed water. Ion-exchange technology uses the resin beds to exchange ions with the impurity-laden water. Here, the water’s hydrogen ions get exchanged with the impurities. This way, the fed water is purified by the process. In some instances, the normal water is fed in between the electrodes ( anions and cations) that traps the impurities.

In addition to these technologies, there are some normal ways which remove the impurities from the fed water.  These common techniques are distillation, UV radiation method, Deionization, etc.

Conclusion

Whenever you think of setting up a water purification system for laboratory use. Go through all kinds of aspects of the system.  Know what kind of water you need and what type of water purification system for the laboratory can be used for the process.  These all things will help you choose the right water purification system for your laboratory work.