RiOs-DI^® Water Purification System

The presence of silica in ultrapure water has long been recognized as an issue in several areas of research and routine testing. In particular, applications in the microelectronics industry are particularly known for their sensitivity to silica, but instruments such as weatherometers, autoclaves, and clinical analyzers also require silica-free water to avoid instrument defection and erroneous results. Hence, the avoidance of silica in the final purification system should be a basic and primary concern. It is therefore extremely important to have a well-designed pretreatment system to remove the bulk of silica and to avoid silica release. While some pretreatment methods and systems are very efficient in removing silica, others have a low efficacy due to the materials used or to system misuse. The most widely used water purification technologies are deionization (DI), reverse osmosis (RO), and electrodeionization (EDI). Their effect on and pertinence for silica removal are discussed in terms of silica chemistry and behaviour under different conditions in this paper and comparative data is presented for these three purification technologies.