Pure Water for National Biosample Centre

Published: 11-Sep-2015

Veolia supplies water purification equipment for NIHR’s flagship research facility

High purity water expert Veolia Water Technologies has completed installation of laboratory water purification systems at the UK's National Institute for Health Research’s National Biosample Centre in Milton Keynes. The £24m centre, which is managed by UK Biocentre on behalf of the University of Oxford and the NIHR, has the capacity to store up to 20 million biological samples and provides laboratory facilities for research into treatments for conditions such as dementia and diabetes.

The NBC facility has several laboratories, each requiring two grades of water: Type II water for general laboratory applications, such as media preparation and buffer solutions, and ultrapure Type I+ water for critical processes including DNA/RNA extraction, sequencing and tissue sample preparation.

The two largest laboratories each require up to 100 litres per day of Type II water with a maximum instantaneous demand of 70 l/h. Veolia installed a PURELAB Option-R 15 in each laboratory to provide Type II water, which is then polished to Type I+ water by using PURELAB Ultra Genetic Units.

In the other laboratories the demand is lower, at 40 litres per day, and purification to Type II water is produced by using a PURELAB Option-R 7 with a PURELAB Flex 2 to provide final polishing to Type I+.

Veolia’s PURELAB Option R treats mains water to Type II standard using a combination of prefiltration, reverse osmosis, UV disinfection and ion exchange. The PURELAB Ultra Genetic polishes Type II water to Type I+ ultrapure quality using two ion exchange cartridges with intermediate combined 254/185nm UV for disinfection and organics destruction, followed by ultrafiltration for nuclease removal. The PURELAB Flex2 uses similar technology to the PURELAB Ultra Genetic; however, it includes a point of use biofilter integrated into the flexible dispense head.

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