Millipore Corporation has upgraded Laboratoire Thebault, a clinical laboratory located in Choisy-le-Roi near Paris, France, with an Elix Clinical water purification system, which it uses to feed an Hitachi 917 analyser.
The Millipore system combines pretreatment, reverse osmosis and Millipore's patented Elix electrodeionisation module to produce high-quality, pure water on a consistent basis.
The laboratory, owned by Dr Bertrand Thebault, uses several analysers for biology analyses for walk-in clients as well as contract research organisations (CROs) responsible for clinical trials.
A previous reliance on separate reverse osmosis technology and ion exchange resin cartridges resulted in frequent quality dips. Following an external audit, Thebault began purchasing bottled water, which solved the quality issue but created a significant additional expense due to the large volume of water required.
The installation of Millipore's Elix 70 Clinical water purification system provides the pure water required by the lab at low operating and maintenance costs. Tap water usage was decreased from 4 litres to 2 for every 1 litre of pure water produced.
There is no need to replace saturated ion exchange resins on a regular basis. Additionally, traceability is no longer a problem, as pure water parameters may be printed from an internal monitoring system.
"Today we experience consistent water quality and easily meet the needs for all functions that require pure water," said Dr Thebault. "The pure water produced fully meets our requirements with a level of quality over and above our daily needs."