RO Water Treatment Applications in Hospital

1.0 Background

The daily operation of the hospital is inseparable from water. The demand for water quality is huge and the water standard is also very high, such as hemodialysis, supply room disinfection, inspection and analysis room, doctor-patient drinking, pharmacy, etc., which are inseparable from the high standard water supply system. Reverse osmosis water treatment equipment is advanced equipment integrating microfiltration, adsorption, ultrafiltration, reverse osmosis, UV sterilization, and ultra-purification technology, which can meet the strict water use standards of medical treatment.

For medical water, NEWater is committed to providing complete and lasting solutions. The main process of NEWater is rigorous purification and advanced treatment of water, combining membrane treatment process (including microfiltration or ultrafiltration and reverse osmosis) and ultraviolet disinfection process.

2.0 Principle of NEWater Reverse Osmosis Water Treatment Equipment

Preparation Principle

NEWater reverse osmosis water treatment equipment is composed of a raw water pretreatment system, reverse osmosis purification system, and ultra purification post-treatment system. The purpose of pretreatment is to make the raw water meet the water inlet requirements of the reverse osmosis membrane separation module and ensure the stable operation of the reverse osmosis purification system.

The reverse osmosis membrane system is the most economical and efficient purification method to remove more than 98% ions, organics, and 100% microorganisms in raw water at one time. The ultra-purification post-treatment system further removes the remaining trace ions, organics, and other impurities in the reverse osmosis pure water through a variety of integrated technologies so as to meet the final water quality index requirements for different purposes.

Process Principle

The reverse osmosis adopted by NEWater is the most precise membrane liquid separation technology. The operating pressure is applied on the water inlet (concentrated solution) side to overcome the natural osmotic pressure. When an operating pressure higher than the natural osmotic pressure is applied to the concentrated solution side, the flow direction of the natural permeation of water molecules will be reversed and the water molecules in the influent (concentrated solution) will pass through the reverse osmosis membrane to become purified water on the dilute solution side; Reverse osmosis equipment can block all dissolved salts and organics with a molecular weight greater than 100 but allow water molecules to pass through. The desalination rate of reverse osmosis composite membrane is generally greater than 98%.

They are widely used in industrial pure water and electronic ultra-pure water preparation, drinking pure water production, boiler water supply, and other processes. The use of reverse osmosis equipment before the ion exchange process can greatly reduce the discharge of operating water and wastewater.

3.0 NEWater Reverse Osmosis Water Treatment Medical Type

Hemodialysis

Hemodialysis is a high and fast blood purification method for removing various endogenous and exogenous toxins in the blood. It is clinically applicable to acute or chronic renal failure of various causes, excessive water (acute pulmonary edema, severe nephrotic syndrome, etc.), electrolyte disorder, poison poisoning, etc.

NEWater water treatment equipment adopts reverse osmosis technology. It relies on pressure greater than the osmotic pressure to complete the water filtration process through the capillary action of the membrane. It is made of the internationally common reverse osmosis process principle. The raw water shall be domestic drinking water conforming to GB5745 Standard. The treatment process of reverse osmosis technology includes the pretreatment process, membrane module connection process, and post-treatment process.

The pretreatment process aims to improve the water quality of the treated water, prevent the membrane from being polluted by pollutants in the water, prolong the service life of the membrane and reduce the operation cost of the equipment. The connection mode of the membrane module is often divided into primary and secondary connections. The so-called primary refers to the membrane separation of the feedthrough primary pressurization, and the second refers to the membrane separation of the feedthrough secondary pressurization.

The post-treatment process uses the membrane to permeate water, also known as freshwater, that is, the effluent passing through the reverse osmosis membrane after pressurization. Because the membrane cannot intercept all inorganic substances, there must be some ions and gases in the permeated water, such as Na⁺, HCO₃, CO₂, etc. If it is used for high-purity water, ion exchange, degassing tower, ultraviolet ozone and other processes should be further used as the post-treatment of permeated water.

Disinfection of the Supply Room

The departments and places related to hospital cleaning are the largest users of hospital water treatment equipment. The most obvious is the disinfection supply center, that is, the logistics supply support department of the hospital, which is the core of preventing disease transmission.

Cleaning, disinfection, and sterilization mainly include scalpels, surgical instruments, surgical clothes, work clothes, ward sheets, etc. With the strengthening of national supervision over hospitals, the requirements for disinfection supply rooms are becoming more and more strict, manual operation basically does not exist especially in infected areas. NEWater equipment can meet the strict requirements of the hospital. In view of the actual situation of hospitals simultaneously, most of the hospitals use dual-stage reverse osmosis technology, and only a few hospitals use single-stage reverse osmosis equipment in order to save costs.

According to the size of the hospital, most general hospitals in prefecture-level cities use 3 tons / 5 tons of reverse osmosis pure water equipment per hour; General hospitals in county-level cities mostly use reverse osmosis pure water equipment with a flow of 1 ton per hour; Some specialized hospitals generally use reverse osmosis equipment with a water yield of 0.5 tons per hour.

Doctor-patient Drinking

NEWater RO water treatment equipment can generally remove fleas, algae, protozoa, bacteria, and even viruses in water. Combined with the second-generation treatment process, the advantages of each process can be brought into full play. It has a good removal effect on pathogenic microorganisms, turbidity, natural organic matter, trace organic pollutants, and ammonia nitrogen in the water, so doctors and patients are satisfied with the increasing water quality requirements. Pathogenic microorganisms, turbidity, natural organic matter, trace organic pollutants and ammonia nitrogen have good removal effects, so as to meet the increasing requirements of doctors and patients for drinking water.

Pharmaceutical Industry

Today, HPW based on RO has been recognized by the world’s major developed countries representing advanced medical technology and has become one of the standard preparation methods of medical purified water. The application of reverse osmosis water treatment technology in the pharmaceutical industry includes water treatment technology, reverse osmosis water treatment, reverse osmosis application, and water treatment in the pharmaceutical industry.

Water quality requirements of medical purified water and corresponding reverse osmosis membrane water treatment process: Medical purified water has certain requirements for conductivity and ion content. Main water quality indicators: conductivity≤2μS / cm, heavy metal≤0.3μg/L, TOC≤500μg/L. In order to meet the water quality requirements of purified water, the main reverse osmosis membrane water treatment processes are reverse osmosis machine & mixed bed system, secondary reverse osmosis equipment, and reverse osmosis unit& EDI system. Due to environmental protection requirements and cost constraints, NEWater adopts secondary reverse osmosis in most cases.

Application direction	Purified water	Water for injection	Pure steam
I	Water source for preparing water for injection(pure steam)	Water for the last fine washing of packaging materials of sterile products indirect contact with drugs	Sterile drugs, materials, containers, equipment, sterile clothes or other articles need to enter the damp heat aseptic treatment in the sterile operation area
II	Water for the last washing of equipment, utensils, and packaging materials in direct contact with nonsterile drugs	Injection, sterile flushing agent, and ingredients	Damp heat sterilization of culture medium
III	Initial washing of injection and sterile drug bottles	Aseptic API refining
IV	Ingredients of nonsterile drugs	Final washing water for packaging materials in direct contact with sterile raw materials
V	Refining of nonsterile pharmaceutical raw materials

4.0 Advantages of NEWater Reverse Osmosis Water Treatment Equipment in Hospital

• The produced water quality of NEWater reverse osmosis water treatment equipment meets the American AAMI / ASAIO dialysis water standard
• Foreign first-class reverse osmosis membrane modules, high-pressure pumps, UV sterilizers, controllers, and other assembly parts are selected
• The whole system operates automatically and has the functions of automatic flushing and regeneration of the pretreatment system
• The automatic control function of pure water tank liquid level and pure water transmission; It has the safety functions of water-free protection, high and low-pressure protection, and other devices
• During the shutdown period, it still has the functions of regular automatic cleaning of reverse osmosis membrane, automatic transmission of pure water pipeline, and automatic recycling of pure water so as to prevent the breeding of bacteria and other microorganisms and the generation of pyrogen
• Online monitoring and display of produced water quality with a high-precision conductivity meter
• The container structure is adopted, which covers a small area and is practical and convenient
• All materials in contact with water meet the requirements of medical hygiene
• It can be directly used with various dialysis machines
• Flexible and reliable process design can be suitable for different water sources
• Meet the special requirements of users for remote, high-level, and multi-point use,  and the system is equipped with an emergency use interface

 

5.0 Advantages of NEWater Reverse Osmosis Membrane Technology

In the process of making pure water by reverse osmosis, the pressure is used as the power to make the pure water pass through the reverse osmosis membrane and collect it. Therefore, there is no phase change and no acid-base waste liquid treatment in the whole water-making process. Therefore, the reverse osmosis membrane method has become the main method for preparing medical purified water because of its characteristics of energy saving and environmental protection.

6.0 Cost of NEWater Reverse Osmosis Water Treatment System

The overall cost includes facility construction cost, chemical use, energy use, membrane replacement cost, depreciation of fixed equipment, equipment maintenance cost, labor cost, etc. It is determined that the cost is affected by factors such as system scale, water quality, water production demand, daily treated water volume, and power and labor cost of the place where the system is used.

Among them, reverse osmosis saves space and energy. It uses half the energy of electrodialysis and one-tenth of the energy of distillation, which reduces its cost of ownership due to its high efficiency and long life expectancy. Generally, the operating cost per ton is less than 10 yuan. If the influent is pure water, the operating cost will be relatively low mainly electricity (the reagent cost can be almost ignored)even if it is 1 ton of water. If the power consumption of secondary reverse osmosis water production is 1 degree and the power consumption of secondary water production lifting is 0.5 degrees, the operating cost per ton is 1.2-1.5 yuan (excluding the raw water cost).

NEWater is a professional water treatment system solution provider in China and has many applications in the medical field. We not only focus on energy consumption but also on water quality assurance and full utilization of water resources so as to meet different scenarios as much as possible, promote sustainable development, and serve the construction of ecological civilization.

If you need this, we can provide you with strong technical support and equipment support. We believe that you will not be disappointed if you contact our engineers for specific consultation.