ELGA Process Water has introduced a new monitoring tool to help in microbiological control of water systems. ‘Bactiquant-water’ is a simple-to-operate test system that gives a rapid indication of total viable bacteria count – a test which normally takes two or three days – in under an hour.
This means system performance can be monitored on a day-to-day basis, and any deviations from normal conditions can be detected early.
Bacteria from a measured sample volume of water are concentrated by a membrane filter. A fluorescent labelled enzyme substrate is added, and the filter unit is incubated for 10-30 minutes, allowing bacterial enzymes to react with the substrate to form a fluorescent product. The number of bacteria is estimated by measuring the amount of fluorescence using a hand- held fluorometer. The signal produced is directly proportional to the amount of bacteria present, and, ELGA Process Water says, scientific studies have documented good correlations between Bactiquant-water and conventional plate counts and microscopic methods.
The Bactiquant-water pack
age includes sampling equipment, membrane filter, enzyme substrate, and fluorometer. It also comes with its own FDA-compatible database software, which establishes a baseline for normal operation, and, using Statistical Process Control based on ISO 11462-1, generates ‘normal’, ‘alarm’, and ‘action level’ signals. ELGA Process Water provides full on-site operator training.
Visit www.shop.elgaprocesswater.co.uk for more information.
