Why is purified water generation system Better?

The drought threat is real and waiting for Mother Nature is not an option. A reliable supply of safe, clean water is crucial for public health and the economy. Valley Water has been preparing for drought by investing in technology and infrastructure, including the Anderson Dam Seismic Retrofit Project, upgrading and maintaining our pipelines and water treatment plants and expanding the use of recycled and purified water.

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The Purified Water Project will allow Valley Water to develop the use of purified water to supplement existing water sources to replenish our groundwater in a manner that minimizes environmental impacts. This project will provide a drought-resilient and local water supply.   

When completed, this project will build a facility capable of providing at least 10 million gallons per day of high-quality, drought-resilient purified water.

Purified water produced from this project, along with existing recycled water use, will help Valley Water meet about 10% of Santa Clara County's water demand through recycled and purified water. The use of purified water for groundwater replenishment will help us diversify our water supplies especially as droughts continue to occur with increasing frequency and length due to climate change. It will also help us maintain groundwater levels and prevent overpumping of groundwater, which can cause land subsidence (sinking).

Water that is underground, also called groundwater, is one of the county's greatest natural resources and an important part of our drinking water supply. Nearly half of the water used in Santa Clara County is pumped from groundwater basins located below the surface. The County's groundwater basins serve several important functions in that they transmit, filter, and store water. Groundwater is pumped by local water retailers, companies, and individual well owners to serve many beneficial uses, including municipal and domestic needs, agriculture, and industry. 

Since the s, Valley Water has worked to protect and augment groundwater supplies through the coordinated use of surface water and groundwater. Although groundwater is replenished naturally by rainfall and other sources, the amount of groundwater pumped far exceeds what is recharged naturally. 

To help offset groundwater pumping and prevent over-pumping groundwater, saltwater intrusion, and land subsidence (sinking), Valley Water uses local and imported surface water to replenish groundwater through groundwater recharge facilities, including percolation ponds and creeks.

The Purified Water Project will help supplement those groundwater recharge efforts with a locally controlled and drought-resilient water supply.

Yes, purified water is safe! The multistep advanced water purification process utilizes (1) microfiltration, (2) reverse osmosis, and (3) UV light disinfection and advanced oxidation to remove potential water contaminants. Thanks to this process, purified water meets or exceeds state and federal water drinking standards, which are verified through monitoring to ensure safety and quality. When used in groundwater replenishment, purified water also benefits from additional filtration that occurs naturally through the soil.

 With the Purified Water Project, Valley Water will join many other places in the United States and worldwide in using this water purification and groundwater replenishment method, including Monterey and Orange counties in California, the city of El Paso in Texas, Australia, and Singapore.

To learn more about how purified water is used as a drinking water source and the purification treatment process, please visit purewater4u.org. There, you can also sign up for tours of the existing Silicon Valley Advanced Water Purification Center.

On average, the Silicon Valley Advanced Water Purification Center (SVAWPC) produces 8 million gallons per day of purified water. Much of this water is used to enhance the quality of recycled water for important industrial and landscape use. 

 With the Purified Water Project, a new facility will be built to expand Valley Water’s purified water treatment capacity to at least another 10 million gallons per day. This new drought-resilient and locally controlled water supply will supplement existing water sources used to replenish our groundwater and diversify our drinking water supply. 

 Of the two potential facility sites the project is exploring, one involves expansion at the current SVAWPC site. Valley Water is in the early stages of environmental review and securing partnership agreements for key aspects of the project. The outcome of these efforts will determine whether the SVAWPC site or the former Los Altos Treatment Plant site in Palo Alto becomes the selected site for the new facility.

The amount of energy required to purify water from the new proposed water purification facility will be analyzed as part of the project’s Environmental Impact Report (EIR). For reference, Valley Water’s Silicon Valley Advanced Water Purification Center (SVAWPC) uses approximately 13.2 Gigawatt hours (GWh) to produce on average 8 million gallons per day of water.  

Most of the energy required to produce purified water is used to remove potential contaminants during the treatment process. The energy required to purify water from treated wastewater is significantly less than desalinating sea water since there is less dissolved substances and potential contaminants to remove. Below is a graph comparing total dissolved solids (TDS) between different types of water to demonstrate how much more energy it would potentially take to desalinate sea water over purifying treated wastewater. While TDS is used as an indicator for potential contaminants in water, it can also include normally occurring substances in water, like minerals and salts. The average TDS levels for tap water in our county and the maximum allowed TDS level for federal drinking water standards are also included for comparison.  

As treated wastewater moves through the water purification process, impurities and contaminants are removed and concentrated into a brine. This brine is also known as RO concentrate and contains the same amount of pollutants that would have been discharged into bay originally as part of treated wastewater. The only difference is that pollutants within RO concentrate is more concentrated.

 Since , the RO concentrate from the SVAWPC is blended with tertiary treated wastewater at the San José-Santa Clara Regional Wastewater Facility and discharged to the San Francisco Bay in compliance with strict environmental regulations. 

Valley Water is working with our partners to find similar RO concentrate solutions for this new project. We are conducting the necessary rigorous evaluations and analyses of the available options for managing RO concentrate, including modeling, studies, collaborative workshops with stakeholders, assessment by an Independent Advisory Panel of Experts, and discussions with regulators. Regulators and the environmental community have been very supportive of increased water recycling and the need to manage this waste stream cost effectively. 

Valley Water has a history of collaboration with cities and other agencies to build and expand water reuse projects from Palo Alto to Gilroy.  Valley Water will continue to work with its partners to make potable water reuse a reality for the county.  Valley Water signed an agreement with the cities of Palo Alto and Mountain View in to support this regional purification project and is continuing to work with the cities of San José and Santa Clara to explore additional partnerships.

Just like any project subject to the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), the EIR will examine the project as defined. If there are alterations that occur following project approval, the lead agency will review whether those changes meet the criteria set forth in CEQA as to whether additional environmental review is required. 

Additional environmental review is typically triggered by substantial changes that have the potential to result in new or substantially more severe impacts that were not previously discussed. This additional review could take several forms depending upon the project change: an addendum, a Subsequent, or a Supplemental EIR.

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Currently, the Purified Water Project is only considering groundwater recharge (indirect potable reuse) as part of the proposed project. Direct potable reuse could be considered for a future separate project. The State Board is currently developing regulations to address direct potable reuse, but these regulations are not in place yet. Any future direct potable reuse project will need to meet these new requirements.

Valley Water has evaluated future direct potable (drinkable) reuse opportunities, which includes supplementing raw water supplies for our water treatment plants pending state regulations. These evaluations can be found in Valley Water’s Countywide Water Reuse (CoRe) Master Plan, which is posted under the “Reports and Documents” section of the project website. 

The pharmaceutical industry uses pure water in various ways. It can be employed in the formulation of non-parenteral products as well as the last washing of containers and process machinery. It may be employed in the initial washing of containers and the feeding of WFI systems during the production of parenteral goods. It is thus important to understand the purified water generation system(tl,ja,tr) in the pharmaceutical industry.

While there are several purified water generation processes, the main objective of all the operations are:

• cGMP compliance
• Adhering to the guidelines set by the global pharmacopoeias
• Upholding on-site specifications
• Sanitary in-line instrumentation 

What is Purified Water in Pharma?

The term “purified water” is frequently used in pharmaceutical operations. Simply put, it is a type of pharmaceutical-grade water that is frequently employed as an excipient in the manufacturing of sterile and pyrogenic medications.

Different Purified Water Generation Systems in Pharmaceutical Industry

Pure water generation systems in pharma are usually designed keeping in mind the scope and scale of the plant and the end-use product specifications. One of the first steps in the purified water generation system in the pharmaceutical industry is the pre-treatment. Depending on the quality of the feed water and the requirement of the process, the pre-treatment stage may include the following processes:

Chlorination

An anti-oxidant such as chlorine is added to the water to eliminate bacteria and viruses. 

Dosing System

Three key goals are achieved during the dosing process. To prevent the water’s silica, sulphates, and other precipitates from fouling the filter membranes, an anti-scalent dosage is used by adding sodium hexametaphosphates. After that, acids like acetic acid and hydrochloric acid are added to the water to remove carbon dioxide. This is called the pH correction dosage. The chlorine that was added during the chlorination process is additionally removed from the water by adding SMBS, or sodium metabisulfite, as chlorine could corrode the RO membranes in the pipes.

Commonly-Used Purified Water Generation System Designs in Pharma

After the water is suitably pre-treated, different purified water generation systems in the pharmaceutical industry are undertaken for further purification. 

Reverse Osmosis or RO

Reverse osmosis is one of the most commonly used different purified water generation systems in the pharmaceutical industry and is considered one of the best methods for filtration. 

Using semi-permeable membranes, reverse osmosis forces the water to the diluted side by interrupting the water’s normal osmotic flow. The reverse osmosis membranes are typically constructed of cellulose acetate and have incredibly small pores that allow water to pass through while trapping bacteria. The water rejects the impurities as it travels through the membranes when a high-pressure pump is used to force the water through. Additionally, it is crucial to make sure that the membranes utilised in the procedure need particular sanitization techniques. Microbial pollutants are removed from the membranes while they are being rinsed with hot water that is 80 degrees Celsius. Inorganic contaminants that could impair the quality of the water being carried through the membranes are removed using acids like citric acid.

RO is effective at removing salts, sugars, dyes, bacteria, other particles, microorganisms, trihalomethanes, pesticides, and volatile organic compounds. However, it cannot eliminate the dissolved gases in the water, such as carbon dioxide.

Electrodeionisation or EDI

EDI is a popular and cost-effective method used for the manufacturing of high-purity water in pharma. 

Ion exchange and electrolysis form the basis of the de-ionization process. Its major goal is to remove particular ions from the water and swap them out for more preferable ions.

Different ions, or molecules and atoms with various charges, can be found in water. The terms “cations” and “anions” are used to describe the positive and negative charges of ions, respectively. Ion-exchanging membranes, which are essentially high surface electrodes with positive and negative charges, are used to separate the ion exchange resin beds that are used to set up the EDI module. The positively charged cation flows toward the negatively charged anode, and the negatively charged anions move toward the positively charged cathode, causing the water to become de-ionized when an electric current is sent through it at a right angle.

De-ionization efficiently eliminates water-dissolved pollutants such as salts, minerals, and organic contaminants.

Distillation

Distillation makes use of the volatility (difference in vapour pressures) of the water and contaminants that are suspended in it. In a multi-column distillation facility that has been properly developed, the water is boiled, and the vapours are condensed to obtain clean and sterile water.

Water for injection is one of the main applications for the purified water produced by the distillation process, as distillation is capable of removing endotoxins from the water. Water for injection (WFI) is a type of pharmaceutical water that is suitable for putting pharmaceuticals or treatments right into patients’ bloodstreams.

Ultra-violet Disinfection

UV disinfection is one of the low-cost and quick methods of producing high-purity water. In this procedure, pathogens such as bacteria, viruses, algae, moulds, etc., are removed from the water by exposing it to UV radiation of particular wavelengths using a UV lamp.

Cleaning in Place (CIP), a technique used in the pharmaceutical industry to make sure the vessels, equipment, pipes, filters, and other paraphernalia are safe to be used for various pharma operations, is one of the primary applications of UV disinfection outside of the manufacture of healthcare products.

TSA has almost 20 years of experience delivering optimized purified water solutions at the lowest cost per litre. Our team can support you at every stage, from design and installation and validation to after-sales support.