Innovative Point-of-Use Water Purification Provided by Millipore's New Milli-Q^® Integral System

Millipore Corporation, a Life Science leader providing technologies, tools and services for bioscience research and biopharmaceutical manufacturing, today announced the availability of the new Milli-Q Integral water purification system. Designed as a one-source solution for pure and ultrapure water, the new system provides laboratories with an innovative alternative to centralized “loop” configurations.

Each centralized loop water system delivering pure water in cGMP-compliant labs installed in a new building is a complex machine built only once. This solution is expensive, time consuming to install and requires a specific, tailored qualification protocol, which takes time to develop. Moreover, depending on loop length and design, it may be difficult to deliver water within quality specifications. The Milli-Q Integral system provides an alternative, lower cost solution for the delivery of pure and ultrapure water in new laboratory buildings: standard units quickly installed where needed, delivered with a standard qualification protocol already performed with success many times, which provides labs with guaranteed results.

If a water delivery loop extension is performed to feed additional laboratories, cGMP will require the revalidation of the entire water purification installation, with the risk to impact the existing operation, whereas the installation of Milli-Q Integral systems to feed those new labs will just require the validation of the additional systems.

Combining Millipore’s patented Elix^® technology with the company’s best-in-class Milli-Q solution, the Milli-Q Integral system’s single water production unit produces pressurized pure and ultrapure water directly from tap water. Users switching from a centralized water purification system/distribution loop to the new Milli-Q Integral systems will gain direct control over water quality throughout the entire purification process, thanks to the system’s high-precision integrated TOC and resistivity monitoring devices, which detect both ionic and organic contaminants.

The system has a reduced “footprint” for easy bench integration, or for convenient installation anywhere in the lab (including wall installation). Separate Points-of-Delivery (POD) dispensers deliver either ultrapure water (from the Q-POD^® unit), or pure water (from the E-POD™ unit) at adjustable flow rates ranging from drop-by-drop to 2 L/min. Milli-Q Integral system users are not restricted to a single ultrapure water quality, as is often the case in labs with loop configurations: POD dispensers can be adapted with contaminant-specific final polishers to remove pyrogens, nucleases, bacteria, particulates and organics.

The flexibility of the Milli-Q Integral system lets users adapt their water purification solution easily to keep pace with changing laboratory needs. A range of systems exists to provide users with 70 to 360 L/day of pure and/or ultrapure water. In addition, each system supports up to three POD units, for water delivery exactly where it is needed. Pure water storage reservoirs are designed to accommodate volumes of 30 to 350 L.

Other system benefits include low maintenance and well-controlled running costs, due to the patented and environmentally friendly Elix technology, which allows continuous ion-exchange resin regeneration by a weak electric current. Users can opt for a comprehensive Service Plan, which can include validation support by Millipore’s professional Field Service Support Engineers.