Water purification in the pharmaceutical industry is a critical process that involves various procedures and methods to ensure the quality and safety of the water used in pharmaceutical manufacturing. The purification process typically includes several st

What is the RO water treatment system for pharmaceuticals?

The type of water after filtration is guaranteed to be used to manufacture medicines in the form of tablets, compressed medicines, medical instrument cleaning water, etc. The water source for the water treatment system in pharmaceuticals can come from: domestic water, groundwater, etc.

Applications of the RO water treatment system for pharmaceuticals

• Water will be used for various purposes in the pharmaceutical industry. Specifically:
• The RO water treatment system for pharmaceuticals provides water that has been softened, removes all impurities and harmful microorganisms...
• Use the pure water from the RO water treatment system to manufacture medicines.
• Use to produce injectable drugs, oral medications, clean medical instruments, clean wounds, etc.

RO water treatment technology

RO water treatment technology operates based on the reverse osmosis mechanism. When the water source is introduced, the pressure difference between the inlet and outlet will push the water to the filter membrane. Here, the filter membrane has an ultra-small size of 0.0001 Micron, capable of removing up to 99.8% of metals, dissolved salts, bacteria, fungi, etc., present in the water, allowing only water molecules to pass through.

After cleaning, the water ensures that the output water meets the standards as required and has a conductivity below 10µS/cm. Thanks to the pure water source, the drug processing process is guaranteed in terms of quality and does not affect the properties of the drug.

RO water treatment process in the pharmaceutical industry

• The water source supplied to pharmaceuticals must meet the quality standards of the Vietnamese Pharmacopoeia III. Therefore, when designing a water treatment system, applying water filtration technologies, three main factors must be ensured:
• Water quality.
• Simple system operation.
• Cost-saving operation.

The treatment process includes the following main components:

• Sand filter equipment: removes sand, sediment, reduces water turbidity.
• Activated carbon filter equipment: Removes color, odor, residual chlorine in water, without changing the water quality.
• Water softening equipment: Removes hard metal ions in water such as Ca, Mg. After a period of operation, the Cation resin particles will ion exchange. Thereby, contributing to water softening.
• RO reverse osmosis membrane equipment level 1: with ultra-small filter holes of 0.0001 micrometers, only allowing water molecules to pass through, capable of removing up to 99.9% of impurities and microorganisms.
• Water after passing through the RO membrane filter will have low conductivity in the range of 2 ms to 5 ms.
• Multistep equipment: a device combining Cation - Anion - Cation exchange with each other, removing remaining ions and adjusting the pH to a neutral level. At the same time, reducing the water conductivity to 0.3 ms to 1.3 ms.
• RO reverse osmosis membrane equipment level 2: continues to clean remaining metals, microorganisms, bacteria in the water.
• Cleaning chemical system: RO membrane filters will accumulate dust, bacteria over time, requiring the use of specific chemicals for periodic cleaning to ensure the proper operation of the filter membrane.

RO water treatment methods in the pharmaceutical industry

The water source for use in the pharmaceutical industry must ensure the following two factors: Maximum removal of metals, organic substances, dissolved impurities in water, reducing conductivity to the lowest level. This is considered the process of mineral removal for water. Bacteria must be completely removed, usually by using UV ultraviolet rays.

To remove minerals in water, one or a combination of multiple methods can be used together. Basic mineral removal methods commonly applied include: ion exchange method, RO reverse osmosis, water distillation.

Reverse osmosis is used first in the mineral removal process. After passing through the RO process, water quality with a conductivity of about 2-5S/cm is obtained. This water source is usually used to clean medical instruments, rinse drug containers, not directly used for products.

To further reduce the conductivity to a low level, the next step is to use water distillation or mixed bed ion exchange method. The mineral removal method using mixed bed ion exchange is the mixing of Cation and Anion resin beads together.

After this process is completed, the water conductivity reaches 0.1ms and is used in the final stage for direct drug manufacturing. Sterilization process: Using UV ultraviolet rays, shining on the DNA core of bacterial cells, preventing them from regenerating in water, causing harm in water.