Challenge
A leading Florida Medical Center features a state-of-the-art clinical diagnostics laboratory with a complete range of blood analysis services. The water requirements for new clinical analyzers installed in the lab was less than 10 mg/L total organic carbon (TOC) and conductivity less than 0.1 cm at 25 c. In order to meet these requirements, the Medical Center needed to update their water purification system.
“We can’t risk a water system failure,” says the Laboratory Director. “Bacterial growth in any of our water lines could contaminate our automated analyzers, causing inaccurate readings and other serious issues. We must have reagent grade water at all times.”
Solution
An Evoqua pure water specialist reviewed the lab’s entire water purification needs and recommended a custom-designed treatment system supported by Evoqua’s Water One® services program. “The design includes pertinent redundancies and remote monitoring capabilities to help failsafe the system,” the Lab Director says. “Evoqua also put in a 150-gallon storage tank, which provides us adequate storage capabilities for emergency crisis situations.”
Pretreatment includes service carbon and a Vantage® PTC duplex softener. This softener allows for tank changeouts and other maintenance with zero downtime. An Evoqua Vantage MFX reverse osmosis system provides primary treatment and polish is through a service deionization mixed bed and Aquafine ultraviolet (UV) Light, which destroy bacteria and trace organics. For the final step, the system’s 0.2 UM filters serve to capture any dead bacteria.
Evoqua’s Water One® services program provides 24/7/365 remote monitoring of the lab’s DI water system with automatic alerts for leak detection, status changes and tank exchanges. With this service, Evoqua takes complete operational responsibility for the water processing equipment, including parts replacement, instrument calibration, maintenance, data collection and membrane cleaning. This innovative program also provides predictable, fixed monthly water expenses.
" We can’t risk a water system failure...Bacterial growth in any of our water lines could contaminate our automated analyzers, causing inaccurate readings and other serious issues. We must have reagent grade water at all times "
Results
The new system provides the Medical Center with high quality equipment for reliable, uninterrupted supply, consistent high purity, and low operating costs. The engineered design includes automated switchover capabilities to the center’s main emergency power generator in the event of a power failure and on-line monitoring for early alerts and to reduce the frequency of manual water sampling and analysis.
“I like the idea that a team of experts is watching over our water system for us,” says the Lab Director. “With Water One, Evoqua knows remotely if an issue arises that could put our water quality specifications at risk, and they arrive before any water quality issue occurs. The program works well for us. They’ve got our back 24/7.”
With a custom high purity water system and the Water One program, the Florida Medical Center now has the reliable high purity water they need to meet laboratory demand.