The Challenge
A pharma company has three large central reverse osmosis (RO) systems for production at their Ontario facility. Each of these RO units incorporates low energy, high rejection 8” membranes that provide pure water for multiple critical processes within their facility. High Purity Water Services was contacted to support the customer as it was essential that the RO units operated within water quality specifications to meet USP requirements. Additionally, minimal downtime servicing the RO units was critical to prevent slow-down of production as this would limit the organization’s profitability.
Our Solution
The High Purity team worked closely with the customer to determine that off-site membrane cleanings would be the best fit for the organization. Instead of providing a clean in place unit that would take up space and require on-site chemicals; HPWS provided the customer with an extra set of membranes. When one of the units permeate quality was trending above specification, HPWS provided replacement with the spare set. The removed membranes would be sent off-site to be cleaned and tested to confirm quality was back within specification. During the next membrane replacement, this spare set was used.
The off-site cleaning procedure provided by HPWS allowed for minimal downtime, high level of redundancy and significant cost savings to our client.