by: Jo Alelsto




International standards for manufacturing practices are very stringent to ensure the safety and the best quality products and practices for the consumers. This is especially true for water. Water is essential to many medical, manufacturing, food processing, and other industrial applications.

Why is there a need for deionized water?

Water which undergoes the deionization process is regarded as almost “pure water” and therefore it is vital to many industrial processes which needed high quality, uncontaminated water.

Deionized water follows this process of purification:

1. Organic trap – Water is passed through an organic trap to remove organic compounds in the water. Organic traps are ion exchange resins with a strong base anion resin. Most organic compounds are slightly negative (cationic) and the organic traps absorb these compounds.

2. Twin-bed Deionizers – After removing the organic compounds, water is passed through a twin-bed deionizer which has two separate chambers for cationic and anionic processes using acid and caustic solutions.

These two processes result in deionized water meaning water with no organic and ionic impurities. However, there are other impurities present in water and further purification is needed to produce high quality, pure water for many industries.

3. Mixed Bed Resin – This filter has a pore size of greater than 0.05 micrometer which retains impurities larger than the pore size.

4. Ultra Violet Treatment – There are microorganisms in water, bacteria as well as unicellular organisms such as amoeba. A strong Ultra Violet Treatment kills these microorganisms.

5. Filtration – The last phase of the water purification involves the water passing through a 0.02 micrometer filter. This further sifts any remaining impurities left by the preceding phases.

The result of this long but meticulous process is an ultrapure type of deionized water. This type of water is very valuable in many industries.

It is used in dialysis centers as well as other laboratory applications. It is used in the laboratory as a reagent. Ultrapure deionized water is essential to make accurate measurements for biological samples which use a very small amount like serum and plasma. It is also an indispensable item in a microbiology laboratory where glasswares and other instruments are rinsed with deionized water before sterilization. Preparations of media also need deionized water to ensure that the media is sterile for biological inculation of biological samples.

Deionized water is also used in the cosmetics and pharmaceutical industries. It is mainly used for water-based solutions. Since deionized water is free from impurities, it makes the perfect choice for use as a reagent and solvent because it is unlikely to produce undesirable side effects due to impurities.

In electronics production, deionized water is used extensively for processing and cleaning silicon wafers. It is also used to clean optic fibers when these are needed to be scrubbed thoroughly before coating.

Deionized water is also effective in an automotive battery where is it used to top up lead acid batteries of many cars, trucks, and other vehicles. It is also used as a cooling agent in automotives as well as in airplanes, but due to its cost impracticality, this is not practiced today.

Believe it or not, deionized water has even found its use in your local carwash. It is used as a final rinse and since it has no dissolved solutes, there are no spots left after the car has dried.

However, deionized water is not advisable for home use except in small to average amounts. Although it is a good thing that all the impurities are gone and filtered out, some of these impurities are essential for the body. Some salts found in tap water are needed as electrolytes.

And, as a final note, deionized water has no taste at all, not that tap water can really be said as tasty, but you know what I mean.


About The Author
Jo is a writer for ‘The-Water-Company.com’ (http://www.the-water-company.com), an established UK stationed high quality water supplier for more than thirty years, supplying products such as deionized water and demineralized water to a an extensive variety of customers in UK, Europe and the rest of the world. If your corporation has a pure water source needs or if you would like to acquire more details on any qualifications and standard analysis results for the different water products then have a look at The-Water-Company.com.