A major science park has turned to Veolia to replace the ageing water treatment system in one of its lab buildings. The new Terion S units achieve improved reliability, reduced water usage and lower costs.

The large-scale science park in the south of England provides laboratory and office spaces to pharmaceutical, biotechnology, healthcare and technology businesses of all sizes, from start-ups to multinationals.

The client had identified the need to replace the existing water treatment system in one of its lab buildings, which had reached the end of its operational life. Veolia was approached to provide a solution due to its relationship with the client and its previous work on the site. The client’s initial intention was to replace the current central water treatment unit, housed in the building’s plant room, with bench-top units in each laboratory.

To fully understand the requirements of the building’s eight tenants, the Veolia team carried out full data gathering on the water usage within the building. This included ascertaining what equipment was in use by each tenant, as well as the volume and quality of the water required. However, with the tenant businesses focused on their operational priorities, coordinating their availability to discuss the water use and provide the required information was initially challenging. To overcome this Vaishali Shah, Veolia’s Area Sales Manager, created custom online questionnaires to gather the basic information. This was then followed by in-person meetings with each of the tenants and visits to the labs arranged in collaboration with the science park’s team. However, a review of the building to determine where and how each of the bench-top units would be installed revealed that the planned approach was not viable.

Vaishali explains: “Our assessment of the site made it clear that the best solution would be to replace the existing centralised plant with a newer, simpler and more efficient system that could deliver the required quality and volume of water. We put together a detailed rationale explaining our recommended course of action for the client, and the proposed solution was approved.”

Veolia installed two Terion S units to replace the single existing unit. This is the first time in the UK that Terion S has been used for a scientific application. The upgrade work also included the replacement of the existing pre-treatment, UV treatment and system control panels.

The easy-to-install, skid-mounted Terion S uses a combination of single-pass reverse osmosis (RO) and continuous electrodeionisation (CEDI) to remove 99.9% of dissolved inorganics and produce deionised water that meets the highest laboratory and industrial water quality standards. Each of the Terion S units delivers 2,000 litres of purified water per hour (2 m3/h), features variable frequency drive (VFD) pumps for energy efficiency and is supplied Hubgrade ready, enabling simple remote monitoring.

Vaishali explains the advantages of the new system: “It provides the client with a much simpler solution that is easier to maintain. With two units in operation, it achieves a 50% redundancy to minimise downtime should one of the units require maintenance. It also has the ability for either of the units to fill either of the two stainless steel storage tanks on site. Additionally, the new Terion S system delivers much greater water efficiency, achieving 75 percent water reuse and minimising the water to drain for a significant cost saving and reduced water footprint.”

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