An immunohistochemistry and cellular pathology laboratory in one of the UK’s busiest hospitals is now benefiting from what Veolia says is its ‘unique’ Water-as-a-Service (WaaS) offering.
The lab, which operates ‘24/7’, and delivers thousands of test results daily, required a new water treatment system but lacked the capital to purchase it outright. However, ‘through the innovative and flexible approach of WaaS’, the upgrade took place, and the facility is now utilising ‘industry-leading technology’ and specialist expertise from Veolia to maintain its large volumes of water with strict quality requirements.
Located in one of the UK’s largest hospitals, the laboratory required 650 litres/day of purified deionised water to feed eight staining platforms, which run 24 hours a day, playing a crucial role in the detection of specific protein markers that can assist the classification and diagnosis of tumours. The facility also required a minimum of 300 litres of water to be kept in storage at all times and purified at point of dispense. In addition, due to the nature of the laboratory’s work, the treated water also had to comply with Clinical Laboratory Reagent Water (CLRW) standards, and be delivered through a single tap next to the purifier.
Veolia explained: “However, after an extensive refurbishment and expansion of the facility, the capital was not available to purchase and install a new water treatment system outright to meet increased demand. This is where our team provided a much-needed solution – by recommending its industry-leading technology in combination with its unique WaaS offering.”
Veolia says that ‘unlike other water treatment solutions’, WaaS only requires the client to pay for the treated water they use, ‘allowing the cost to be spread over a much longer period’. Veolia also takes on responsibility for the operation and maintenance of the water treatment asset, replenishing consumables and handling asset regeneration when necessary. All of this enables the client to keep CapEx to a minimum, and take on minimal risk.
At the heart of the WaaS offering for the UK laboratory was the CENTRA R 200 HFV, tailored to the site’s needs – a ‘powerful’ purification, storage, and distribution system that utilises a 200 litre/hour reverse osmosis (RO) membrane ‘ideal’ for localised high-throughput applications. Coupled with C940 deionisation cylinders – which contain a nuclear-grade resin that removes trace ionic impurities to ‘sub-parts-per-billion’ levels – the system enables Veolia to guarantee the quality of the water produced. The new system at the laboratory now delivers 235 m3 of Type II CLRW water per year, with a treated water quality of >10MW cm at 25 °C and 30 ppb TOC of organics.
“WaaS was the ideal solution for the hospital laboratory – it allowed the team there to control capital costs without compromising on quality and reliability of pure water output,” explained Veolia’s Etienne Arman. “Furthermore, under a WaaS agreement, we operate the asset – so the client never has to worry about maintenance replacing consumables. Thanks to integration with our Hubgrade remote monitoring portal, we can optimise the system and use predictive analysis to pre-empt any issues.”
