SUEZ’s Water Purification Systems division, a leading UK manufacturer of water purification equipment for use in laboratories, healthcare and industrial applications, has introduced LED UV point of use disinfection technology into its range of laboratory water purification equipment. This uses long-life LEDs to reduce the risk of bacterial contamination, lower operating costs and eliminate the impact on the environment relating to the disposal of mercury lamps.

To date, laboratory water purification systems have used a combination of sub-micron membrane filters and low pressure, mercury UV lamps to disrupt the DNA of bacteria and viruses; this prevents them from reproducing. Although this approach can eliminate > 99% of all bacteria, the problem is that the lamps are generally embedded within each water purification unit and are remote, relatively speaking, from the point at which purified water is dispensed. Each time the dispense valve is opened there is a risk that environmental air-borne bacteria could enter the downstream dispense point, where it could colonise and potentially replicate, thus compromising future samples.

The new system developed by SUEZ eliminates these problems by using miniature LED lamps located within the dispense head, at the point of use. Due to advances in LED engineering this is the first time such technology has been able to be used in this way and brings with it a number of important benefits.

In particular, by removing the need for mercury lamps in laboratory water purification units it makes maintenance far simpler, while eliminating the need for special handling and disposal of each lamp, due to their fragile construction and potentially toxic chemicals. Traditional mercury lamps also require several minutes to warm-up, before they become effective, whereas LEDs provide an immediate response; the latter also use far less power and dissipate virtually no heat into the water while in use.

The new LED UV technology will be available on all SUEZ laboratory water purification units, including the Select HP, Fusion and Neptune. These units are designed for all applications requiring ASTM Type I, II, III and BS grades of laboratory water.

SUEZ laboratory water purification units