Challenge

A Biocontainment Level-4 laboratory is designed to work with microorganisms such as Ebola, Marburg and Congo-Crimean hemorrhagic fever viruses that pose serious health threats, making entrance to these facilities highly restricted. These labs also depend on a reliable source of high purity water for their day to day operations. However, with tightened security and restricted access, Biohazard lab facilities need innovative, ultrapure water treatment systems that can be easily serviced without compromising water quality, human safety or the facility’s environment.

Solution

Water used in research at these facilities needs to be extremely pure. Tap water typically contains particulates, dissolved organics, and dissolved inorganics that can impact the results of laboratory testing methods. To remove these contaminants and ensure that the water quality meets ASTM (American Society for Testing and Materials) Type I, 18-megohm quality, the water must be treated with a combination of technologies.

Siemens Water Technologies offers a standard ultrapure water treatment system that includes a pretreatment cartridge to remove chlorine and particulates, a reverse osmosis (RO) system with a storage reservoir, and an ultrapure lab water polishing system.

The system is designed to meet 18.2 megohm quality ultrapure water with < 3ppb Total Organic Carbon (TOC) and < 0.001 EU/ml endotoxin levels. When fitted with an optional bioguard filter, the system further removes biological contamination.

In addition, the system is fully self-contained on a single roller cart that can be easily transported from the biohazard laboratory to a decontamination area and out to a service engineer for servicing, offering mobility, flexibility, convenience. and safety. Also, the system is designed to be fed from a tap water source, allowing it to be easily moved from one location to another. 

ASTM Standard Specifications for Reagent Water
ASTM	Resistivity(megohm-cm @25°)	Total Silica (mg/L)	TOC (ppb)	Endotoxins EU/ml	Bacteria Count (Max)	Chlorides (mg/L)	Sodium (mg/L)
Type I	18	3	50	-	-	1	1
Type A	-	-	-	<0.03	10/1000mL	-	-

Incoming tap water enters the water treatment system through external and internal pre-treatment cartridges to remove chlorine and particulates. The water then flows into the RO membranes, where organics, total dissolved solids, and bacteria are substantially reduced. RO cartridges remove 95 percent of the monovalent ions, 98 percent of the divalent ions, and organics with a molecular weight greater than 200. 

The RO product water is then fed to a storage reservoir. The resulting pre-purified water is pumped from the reservoir to the lab polishing unit where it flows through deionization packs, removing oxidized organics and ions. The water then flows through a dual wavelength (185-nm and 254-nm) ultraviolet sterilizer, which disinfects the water and reduces TOC levels. The water undergoes a final ultrafiltration purification step to remove pyrogens and nucleases. An optional 0.2µm point-of-use bioguard filter can be added for microbial reduction at the dispense point.  

When the water treatment system requires scheduled servicing, the Biocontainment facility’s lab personnel simply wheel the system out of the lab, decontaminate it and hand it off to a Siemens service technician for service. An identical water treatment system that has been fully sanitized and maintained is given to lab personnel to use until the next scheduled service rotation. The returned water treatment system is delivered to the Siemens service branch for full sanitization and servicing until the next scheduled service rotation.

Results

A Level-4 Biocontainment laboratory is ensured a consistent supply of high quality water without the worry of equipment “downtime”. The lab also has the convenience of a portable system with scheduled service exchanges, enabling continued workflow without compromising safety.

All water treatment systems are fully maintained by Siemens’ certified water system professionals, offering peace of mind that the system will continually perform as expected, and also extending the system’s service life.