Water - The Elixir of Life

Water is called the “Elixir Of Life”. Without water, life is not possible. The earth’s 71% mass is filled with water in the forms of oceans and seas.  Water is seen as the omnipresent thing in the world. It is present in the form of water vapour in the air, in ice caps, glaciers, underground strata, and in our human systems. Although water is present in sufficient amounts, it still needs purification for executing various laboratory works. The 21st century is all loaded with technologies and their various applications which are being implemented in any laboratory water purifier.

While working in laboratories, the need for good pure water is a must. And for that purpose, the water purification system for the laboratory comes to help. These purifiers are fitted with the latest technologies that purify the tap water or any other water to pure water type. Most of the laboratories use such lab water purification systems to purify the normal tap water to pure water.  

Importance Of Water Purification

In Laboratories, many sensitive experiments are carried on, which need the implementation of pure water.  For this purpose, laboratory fellows set up a water purification system for laboratory use. With the help of such water purifiers, pure water( Type I, Type II, and Type III) can be obtained easily. 

In the natural state of water, it remains full of other substances and organic matter which should be discarded before the experiment.  Following are the main contaminants in normal water: 

  • Organic and Inorganic Contents 
  • Bacteria and other Microorganisms 
  • Dissolved Gases 
  • Particulate Matter 
  • Other Impurities 

Top Technologies In Water Purification 

In the market, there are hundreds of water purifiers varying from simple to complex and advanced. As a laboratory fellow, you can check laboratory water purification system prices online easily. Before approaching any type of water purification system for laboratory use, know about the technology used in it. This would help you to know better about the laboratory water systems.

Several different technologies prevail in the water purification system market which works in the direction of producing pure water.  The Pure water for the laboratory is purified from the potable water fed into the lab water purification system.  The technology which best suits your needs and lab experiments depends on the type of water you require. It can be type I(ultrapure), Type II (General Grade primary water), type III ( RO  water ), or Type IV (feedwater). 

Following are the top technologies used in water purification system laboratory : 

1. Activated Carbon Technology 

The activated carbon technology is mainly used in the water purifiers for adsorbing large chunks of impurities in potable water. Activated carbon is a granular substance, produced by roasting charcoal from coal or coconut shells at the temperature of 800-1000 Degree Celsius. This process is done to activate the laden carbon in the coal or coconut shells. The activated carbon granular materials have numerous pores of surface area 1000m2/gram approx. It is seen that much purer activated carbon is produced through pyrolyzing polymer beads. 

The lab water purification system uses such technology to treat the contaminants of fed water. Activated carbon removes the free chlorines and chloramines from feed water and traces the organic contents also. Up to some extent, these organic impurities are also removed by the activated carbon technology in any water purification system laboratory. In some larger experiments, where rapid purification is needed, the activated carbon method is implemented to eradicate the impurities from the water.  

Work Of Activated Carbon 

The water purification system for laboratory use contains the activated carbon which reduces the free chlorine to chlorides and carbon dioxide. Further, it also breaks down chloramines by steady catalytic reactions, resulting in nitrogen, ammonia, and chloride. All organic contents get adsorbed by the activated carbon granules with the help of its pores. The ionic and van der Waals forces help in this process. 

Benefits of Activated carbon technology 

Following are the benefits of activated carbon technology: 

  • Pre-treatment of water ( Removing of chlorines) 
  • To produce chlorides 
  • Adorbs most of the organic contents, making water good for lab work 
  • Maintains Low TOC levels in Pure Water 
  • Protects reservoirs of purified water in an ultrapure water system for laboratory 

2. Electrodeionization (EDI) Technology 

This technique is electrically-driven technology that is used in any laboratory water purifier. The technology uses electricity to exchange ions with the fed potable water. Electrodeionization technology is also used in ion-exchange membranes that remove ionized species from potable water. EDI technology uses electricity to remove all types of ions and charged species from the normal water, for producing pure water.  These ions can be salts and organic acids that act as charged species. 

Work Of Electrodeionization Technology

The technology consists of an EDI module that contains a set of chambers, filled with ion exchange resins. These chambers are separated by ion-exchange membranes. The potable water is fed into this chamber of the lab water purification system’s EDI module. Here, the electrical fields are applied at right angles to the flow forces of ions, across the membranes. All kinds of impurities get clogged into concentrated streams which can be recycled or drained out. While moving across the electrical fields, the ion exchange happens through the resins. 

After this, the deionized water is further treated to get pure water for laboratory uses. 

Benefits of Electrodeionization Technology 

  • The product of pure water is obtained with good resistance. 
  • Used as an alternative for single-use purification systems.
  • Used for consistently producing pure water than any other method. 
  • In the reduction of organic impurities. 

3. Reverse Osmosis Technology 

Reverse Osmosis technology is a cost-effective method of purifying water in laboratories. This technique discards most of the impurities from the tap water to produce pure water. The reverse osmosis technique is based on the RO membranes that work in eliminating organic contents up to a high degree. These membranes are specialized for preventing the passage of impurities that are more than 0.1nm in diameter. In a single-use, the reverse osmosis membrane eliminates up to 90% of it. To some extent, this technique is also used to remove non-ionic contaminants of molecular weights of greater than 100 Dalton. Many such contaminants get removed by this technology with ease through a water purification system for laboratory use. 

Work Of Reverse Osmosis Technology

While the reverse osmosis process, the feed water or normal water is pumped inside the laboratory water purifier, past the RO membrane under the pressure of 4-15 bar. The pumping of water is done in a cross-flow fashion to produce a concentrated stream of water consisting of organic contents, salts, and particulates. The rest which is left with the purifier is called pure water that appears from the permeate tube. The pressure should be maintained to contain the backpressure effectively.  This RO membrane technology is all stacked up in a lab water purification system. 

Benefits of Reverse Osmosis Technology 

  • Traps great level of impurities 
  • Protects from contamination and fouling by organic contents in pure water 
  • Removes microorganisms and viruses from the feed water 

4. Ultraviolet Technology 

Ultraviolet is a form of electromagnetic radiation with wavelengths of 10 to 400 nm. The wavelength is shorter than that of visible light but is longer than the X-rays. In a water purification system laboratory, an additional synthetic quartz housing is used to minimize the adsorption of light at 185 nm in feed water. 

The ultraviolet rays are used in an ultrapure water system for laboratory to prevent microbiological growth. It also helps in removing organic particles by oxidizing them into acidic contents and carbon dioxide. All these ionic species are then removed by a down-streaming process. 

Work Of Ultraviolet Technology

In any water purification system for laboratory, it has a UV chamber mounted by quartz and steel tubes. In the case of purification, the UV rays damage the DNA and RNA of the bacterial cells.  In this way, the bacterial growth gets controlled by preventing replication. 

Benefits Of Ultraviolet technology 

  • Removes the last trace of organic matter also 
  • Helps in producing ultrapure water more easily 

5. Sub-Micron Filtration 

Within the normal filtration system, there is an additional sub-filtration system that traps impurities ranging from 0.05 to 0.22 microns or less. The microorganism impurities like bacteria get trapped in this sub-micron filter membrane and result in the purification of feed water. Large organic molecules also get trapped in this filter with endotoxins. 

Work Of Sub-Micron Filtration

The microporous screen filters of sub-micron filters trap the bacteria effectively. All particulate matter also gets trapped by this part of any lab water purification system. Microporous screen filters provide a physical barrier to all impurities and do not let them go further down the water system. This way, the feed water gets purified into pure water for lab work. 

Benefits of Sub-Micron Filter 

  • Maintaining purifies water free of bacteria and other small particulates 
  • Removes Large endotoxins also with bioactive materials 
  • Protects contamination of pure water 
  • Useful in autoclaving 

Conclusion

The above technologies actively take part in the water purification systems for laboratory use. All technologies are famous for their purifying capacities and producing pure water. Being a lab fellow or worker, you can easily go through the laboratory water purification system price with the technology set up to execute experiments. Pure water is the necessity of any experiment and these above-mentioned technologies filter out the feed water with efficiency to produce it.


More Blogs

Water purification solutions

Water purification solutions

Read More
Distillation vs Water Maker

Distillation vs Water Maker

Read More
Different Types Of Water For Lab: What You Need TO Know

Different Types Of Water For Lab: What You Need TO Know

Read More