The Imperial College Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering is using the latest Purite technology to provide both general laboratory grade water and ultrapure water for a range of duties in its new laboratory.

The team at the state of the art laboratory at Imperial College Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering are now reaping the rewards of all the hard work and careful planning that went into the design and completion of their new laboratory, with the start of another year of trouble free and reliable operation.

The laboratory, one of the most advanced at Imperial College, took two years from conception to completion and was designed by Research Fellow Dr. Geoff Fowler working in collaboration with the Imperial College Estates Design Office.

The laboratory carries out research into waste management and water quality and includes an instrumentation area running ICP, AAS, TOC, HPLC, GC, and GCMS, all of which require the highest purity water available. Additionally, large volumes of lower grade purified water are required for general laboratory use including washing and rinsing of glassware. As such, the installation of a versatile water system was necessary and water purification specialists Purite Ltd were called in to assist with the project.

The original Civil Engineering laboratory had for many years used single stand-alone reverse osmosis units where pure water was needed. The new laboratory design incorporated features that made this approach less desirable. The introduction of a large automatic glass-washing machine meant that water usage would increase to around 400 litres a day. Also the overall size of the new laboratory would have necessitated long walks to individual purifiers. The solution was provided in the form of a recirculating dynamic ring main, one of the services that run through another innovative feature of this laboratory - 'the service boom'.

The service boom runs down the centre of the laboratory complex and offers easy access to a variety of services as well as cost savings compared to running pipe work in floor or ceiling ducting.

The pure water ring main element of the service boom is fed from a 500 litre / day reverse osmosis unit feeding into an 800 litre polypropylene treated water storage reservoir. From here the partially purified water is continually pumped around the 150 metre ring main via a cylinder deioniser and ultra violet disinfector and then returns to the reservoir. Purite also had to supply ultrapure water to the instrument benches and this is achieved via the installation of two Purite Neptune units to polish the ring main supply to 18.2 Megohm.cm - theoretically pure water.

Dr. Fowler highlighted some simple but effective features that had been specified in the water system. 'Self closing' valves were installed to prevent water wastage should taps be left open in error. This helps keep running costs low and the system is unlikely to run out of water. These laboratory taps, manufactured by Broen, also allow for recirculation right to the purified water outlet and help maintain purity at all times

Purite handled the water treatment element of the overall laboratory as a totally bespoke project designed to meet the exact needs of the customer. The laboratory has now been operating successfully for over two years with very little maintenance apart from the routine replacement of pre-filters and the cylinder deioniser. Dr. Fowler comments "The pure water system has performed exactly to specification and provides us with the quality and quantity of water that we want, exactly where we need it."