Counting the whole life cycle cost of pure water production
In this article we define various grades of pure water, review technologies available for its production, and describe two systems where various process combinations have been used to generate pure water for pharmaceutical and power generation applications. We ask Dr John Hutcheson, a specialist consultant in pure water systems, what costs are involved in pure water production and what technologies can be utilised. We see how double pass reverse osmosis (RO) is being used to deionise raw water for feeding on to electro-deionisation (EDI) or mixed bed ion exchange (MBIX). We describe additional treatment by UV for disinfection and TOC reduction and conclude with thoughts on the critical importance of investing in developing the right process solution so that whole life cycle costs can be minimised.