The Lab Manager

WATER
PURIFICATION
RESOURCE GUIDE

Buying Tips for Water Purification Systems

BY RYAN ACKERMAN

Point-of-Use Water Purification Systems

2017
BY MIKE MAY PhD

Lab Water Systems: Focus on Life Sciences

BY ANGELO DEPALMA PhD

Product Focus: Water Purification Systems

BY ANGELO DEPALMA PhD

Water Purification Systems Product Finder

BY LAB MANAGER
Water Purification Resource Guide 2017

Buying Tips for

Water Purification
Systems
Different labs have different water requirements

By Ryan Ackerman

MAINTENANCE TIP:
WATER PURIFICATION
SYSTEMS
Because vendors have carefully designed lab water
purification systems to be low-maintenance, care of these
instruments is quite simple. Mostly, all you have to do is
change cartridges, filters, and ultraviolet lamps on schedule.
Periodically, youll also want to do a system purge and rinse.
Many of todays systems feature a cleaning option in the
menu to make that process easy.

Will the process type and sensitivity of downstream How will working with biological processes or
instrumentation affect which water purification samples affect the type of water purification system
system should be used? required?

The type of instrument being used to analyze samples will directly
affect the purity of water required. ASTM water comes in three
different purities. Type III is the least pure, and is suitable for
processes such as filling water baths or for use in autoclaves. Type II
is the next step up, recommended for general lab processes, such as
preparing media and certain reagents. Type I is the most pure, and is
required for sensitive analytical processes, such as HPLC, GC, or MS.
For clinical and biological processes, a specialized type of water
known as CLRW water must be used. In order to accommodate this,
specialized systems producing water that complies with the CLSI
guidelines for reagent water must be utilized. Many vendors offer
compliant water purification systems which can help ensure the
correct type of water is used for the laboratorys process.

How does the volume of water required for lab

processes affect which type of system is best?

Different labs have different water requirements. Ensuring the system

can keep up with lab demands is very important. Without enough
water, there is the potential for downtime. Too much water can be
wasteful, and will also increase overhead costs. In order to help with
this, many companies offer reservoir systems which can provide a
backup in case the system is down for maintenance, or if the amount
of water needed changes.

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Water Purification Resource Guide 2017

A touch of intelligence
Milli-Q IQ 7000 purication system
New ultrapure water system with intuitive touch screen
Innovative Q-POD dispenser designed to maximize eciency
Environmentally friendly mercury-free UV oxidation lamps

emdmillipore.com/milliq-iqsystem

The life science business of Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany

operates as MilliporeSigma in the U.S. and Canada.

MilliporeSigma, Milli-Q, and the vibrant M are trademarks and Q-POD is a registered trademark
of Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany. Copyright 2017 EMD Millipore Corporation. All Rights Reserved.
2017 - 03495

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Water Purification Resource Guide 2017
Point-of-Use Water
Purification Systems
Filtering water where it gets used works best in many
situations
By Mike May, PhD
Sometimes, purified water nearby beats a centralized system. As
David Wasescha, product manager at Labconco (Kansas City, MO),
says, Nearly every lab needs some kind of water that is of a higher
grade than tap water. To keep water ultrapure, says Wasescha, it
cant be generated and then stored in a carboy. He adds, Ultrapure
water is best delivered from an on-demand source.
Some methods depend crucially on pure water. As examples,
Thermo Fisher Scientifics (Waltham, MA) Kim Knepper, global
water applications specialist, and Julie Foster, global product
manager for water purification, point out high-performance
liquid chromatography, various forms of mass spectrometry, the
polymerase chain reaction, and tissue culture. The more sensitive
the application, the more specific impurities need to be removed
from the water at low levels, they say.
If the research analyzes trace organic levels in samples, the required
water system should reduce the total organic carbon (TOC) in the
water using a UV light and monitor any trace amount of it. As an
additional safeguard to ensure the TOC measurement is always
accurate, the Thermo Scientific Barnstead GenPure TOC family
includes UV intensity monitoring technology, Knepper and Foster
explain.
TOC in the product water can be measured in real time by the
water system. They add that UV intensity monitoring is designed to
Lab Manager 2017
MAINTENANCE TIP:
HPLC / UHPLC SYSTEMS
With HPLC and UHPLC systems, its often the small things
that can make or break your unit. Cleaning or changing
pump seals or buffer or column filters or frits on a regular
basis is important. Depending on your specific application,
such work can be done daily, weekly, or monthly. That can
include cleaning the whole system at the end of the day, to
prevent bacterial growth, or weekly cleaning of the lines to
prevent clogs.
identify potential problems with the ultrapure water systems ability
to measure TOC by having one more purity parameter that is being
monitored.
Funding filters
You need to look at filter life, Wasescha says. A water purification
system might cost $5,000, but then you could spend $2,000 a year
on filters. To get the longest filter life, he says, make sure that the
inlet water is at least of potable qualityideally softened. He adds,
Changing pre-filters early and often can also help add years to the
lifespan of a reverse osmosis membrane.
For some scientists, improvements in monitoring the water quality
and system status would be a big help. According to Scott Robinson
of the Imaging Technology Group at the Beckman Institute for
Advanced Science and Technology at the University of Illinois
at Urbana-Champaign, his system says that he must replace four
individual $400 filters/mixed-bed modules every three months in
order to keep producing perfectly pure water. The modules are
set up so that the system can detect when modules have timed
out and new ones need to be added, he says. That is, most of the
programming of the system is involved with ascertaining that we
are not trying to trick the system by taking a perfectly good module
off and then putting it back on again. In addition, he has to replace
a less expensive filter at the outlet.
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Beyond the expense, Robinson points out that when the system says
that the modules need replacing, a conductivity meters reading
indicates that the system is still making pure water. So is the meter
wrong? he asks.

Hed like to see this problem solved. What we would want in future
systems is something that works and gives us correct readings,
Robinson says. We would want to know when we really do need to
replace modules.

The Thermo Scientific Barnstead water systems can be

programmed to alert users when the purity drops below acceptable
levels. In addition to using the systems purity displays, [they] also
monitor the impurities in the water that are critical for the labs
specific testing, says Knepper. This way, the lab can replace the
modules only when it is really necessary. After using modules for a
year, though, Knepper says, good laboratory practice is to replace
the modules, and clean the water system at least annually.

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Water Purification Resource Guide 2017
Lab Water Systems:
Focus on Life Sciences
ASTM type II water is the fallback pure water grade for low-
criticality biology work, including labware cleaning.
By Angelo DePalma, PhD
Analytical chemistry, including liquid chromatography mass
spectrometry, uses type I water and beyonda designation for
standard type I water that undergoes additional treatment just before
use.
ASTM type II pure water systems remove inorganic ions, dissolved
gases, organics, particles, bacteria, and pyrogens from feedstock
water (usually tap water or minimally treated tap water). Exceptions
to the type II/life science connection exist for specific applications.
For example, RNase- and DNase-free water used in molecular
biology is free of nuclease enzymes that degrade DNA and RNA.
Thermo Fisher Scientific, Qiagen, GE Dharmacon, and other
vendors sell this grade of water, which is produced by filtering type
II water through a 0.1 m membrane. It has been suggested that
type I water, such as that generated by MilliporeSigmas Milli-Q
purification systems, can substitute for nuclease-free water, provided
the proper buffers are employed.
Erica Reiss, sales and marketing manager at LabStrong (Dubuque,
IA), makes the case for distillation as the preferred generation
method for type II water. Distillation has been around for many
years, and the product is always consistent, whereas with competing
technologies such as deionization (DI) and reverse osmosis (RO),
quality drops off as the consumables become exhausted. Stills are
also always ready to use, even after prolonged downtime, and do not
Lab Manager 2017
require replacement cartridges. LabStrongs Fi-Streem distillation
systems generate from 1.4 to eight liters per hour. The company also
offers a double-distilled model that produces up to four liters per
hour of bi-distilled water.
Razor blade model?
Lab managers accustomed to single-, double-, and even triple-
distilled water systems will point out that type II systems relying
on reverse osmosis or electrodeionization run on a razor blade
economic model in which the bulk of revenues over time come
from replacement membranes and cartridges. Through this logic,
cash-strapped labs, particularly in developing nations, will have
difficulty paying for consumables.
Dr. Estelle Rich, senior scientist in the lab water application group
at MilliporeSigma, the life science business of Merck KGaA,
Darmstadt, Germany (Guyancourt, France),, disagrees. True,
distillation does not use cartridges, and it is historically the way
scientists have purified water. The problem is distillation requires
a lot of electricity for vaporization and water for condensation. It
is a slow process, and monitoring product water quality is difficult.
There is also the issue of accumulation of minerals from hard-water
feedstock on the heating element, requiring frequent cleanings.
According to Rich, the minimum requirements for high-level
biological work is high-purity water that is free of bacteria. Beyond
that, for work involving enzymes (including PCR and library
preparation for sequencing), water should be free of metal ions and
organics, and for work with DNA/RNA, it should also be free of
nucleases. The increasing amount of supersensitive work that relies
on fluorescence or mass spectrometric detection demands organic-
and metal ion-free water. Even cell culture may be affected by trace
contaminants. In other words, when in doubt, use type I water.
We tend to think of water contaminants as five main families; for
example, particles, organics, inorganic ions, bacteria, and gases, all
of which may affect experimental results, depending on the assay,
Rich adds.
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The production of type I water requires several orthogonal

purification steps. Stand-alone type I generators use type II or III
water as feedstock. Other systems can be connected directly to tap
water and produce type II (or type III) water, in addition to type I
water.

The pretreatment step may involve treating tap water by reverse

osmosis and electrodeionization. Optional ultraviolet treatment
inactivates any bacteria remaining in the water. For the polishing
step, MilliporeSigmas Milli-Q system employs ion-exchange
resins, activated carbon, and ultraviolet photo-oxidation. This can be
followed by microfiltration (through a 0.2 m membrane) to remove
particles and bacteria, or ultrafiltration which also removes nucleases
and endotoxins.

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Water Purification Resource Guide 2017
Product Focus: Water
Purification Systems
Water quality affects almost every result a laboratory generates.
While lab workers tend to treat water as just another utility, lab
managers often overspecify water quality.
By Angelo DePalma, PhD
Balancing performance, value
Laboratories typically use pure or ultrapure water, but more pure
isnt always better, says Frank Firicano, division manager at Aries
Filter Works (West Berlin, NJ). Aries, a division of filtration media
manufacturer ResinTech, turns ion exchange and activated carbon
media into point-of-use products.
Because of operating costs and maintenance, operating with
ultrapure water may sometimes be overkill. Firicano cautions
customers who want their water systems to serve every conceivable
situation, You pay for that.
Monitoring water for very high purity also entails costs. The
most common in-line techniques are resistivity and conductivity,
which quantify ions. Other tests include total organic carbon
and bacterial load. Checking for bacteria is time-consuming and
involves culturing the organisms, which takes days. For the most
part, lab water quality is built in through the use of filtration and ion
exchange technologies that are known to remove contaminants to
specified levels.
The other knock on ultrapure water, according to Firicano, is its
aggressiveness in removing ions from surfaces they encounter.
Ultrapure water can damage equipment, when all you might need
is water that will not scale or interfere with your process.
Lab Manager 2017
For situations where ultrapure water is requiredHPLC, for
exampleFiricano cautions on water transfers, a source of
contamination from atmosphere, containers, and tubing. Ultrapure
water is usually generated at the point of use to avoid these issues.
Remote dispensing
But not always.
Julie Foster, global product manager at Thermo Fisher Scientific
(Asheville, NC) notes a strong preference for remote dispensing, an
approach that purifies water some distance from the point of use.
The principal drivers for remote dispensing are space savings and a
desire to create a distributed water generation network within a lab.
Last year Thermo launched a water purification upgrade, Genpure
X-CAD+, which with a remote dispenser provides flexible water
delivery within about a ten-foot radius of the purification system.
All key purity parameters are displayed on both the main and
remote units.
Our customers hang the remote dispensers on walls or under
benches, out of sight, Foster tells Lab Manager.
Transportation is known to degrade type 1 water. For remote
dispensing systems, any quality falloff is tightly controlled.
Materials of construction for remote units and hoses are identical to
those in the water generator.
Moreover, distance from the mother unit is restricted in the Thermo
system to three meters. Theres a set length that we think is safe,
Foster says. Tubing and electrical components are cut to that
length, and we dont supply anything longer.
Type 1 systems also incorporate a recirculation loop to maintain
quality. Type 2 and reverse osmosis systems, for less critical
applications, do not employ recirculation. Users can expect a
resistivity of 18.2 M-cm from remote dispensing systemsas
good as it gets.
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Remote dispensing changes how water is generated, distributed, and
used within a lab. Since one generator can serve multiple dispensing
units, the nine-meter reach covers an area of roughly 80 square feet.
That, and the potential for installing multiple central units, means
that workers are rarely more than a few steps away from high-
quality water.
Foster discourages labs from acquiring thirdparty cartridges,
however, because of quality and consistency issues. Theres IP
around cartridges, but that doesnt mean there arent copies out
there, she says. Knockoff cartridges may work, but their use hinders
troubleshooting if problems arise. And in some instances, they may
void the original warranty.

Avoiding cartridge issues

At one time manufacturers of pure water systems kept tight control

over maintenance and cartridge replacement. Some would not allow
labs to swap out their disposables, for example. That has changed.
Vendors still prefer labs use their replacement cartridges (the razor
blade business model, if you will), but they now encourage lab
workers to do it themselves.

Water Purification
Systems Product
Finder
Purified water can be obtained through various means including
reverse osmosis, carbon filtration, microfiltration, ultrafiltration, UV
oxidation and electrodialysis. Purified water has many uses, largely in
science and engineering laboratories, and industries, and is produced
in a range of purities appropriate for various applications.

Click to Compare

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Featured Manufacturers
MilliporeSigma

We provide scientists and engineers with best-in-class lab materials, technologies and
services. With the 2015 combination of EMD Millipore and Sigma-Aldrich, we now have a
broad portfolio of 300,000 products, an expanded global footprint and an industry-leading
eCommerce platform
www.emdmillipore.com

Aries Filter Works  www.ariesfilterworks.com

Labconco  www.labconco.com

LabStrong  www.labstrong.com

Thermo Fisher Scientific  www.thermofisher.com

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