Kentucky-based UV-C LED water disinfection systems developer AquiSense Technologies has deployed its mercury-free technology into a smaller footprint design with the PearlAqua Micro A point-of-dispense (PoD) disinfection system.
Part of the Nikkiso Group, which has a history in engineering UV LEDs, AquiSense designs UV-based disinfection equipment to serve in applications from PoD devices to industrial-scale water supplies.
The 1.5-inch–diameter Micro A is approximately half the size of the previously released Micro B, which was designed to address point-of-use sanitization. According to an AquiSense spokesperson, “Customers have been using the B unit as a PoD [solution], but [the Micro A] unit is the first of its kind designed specifically for PoD. And yet it can still deliver the same flow/dose as the larger B unit.”
The Micro A reactor provides greater than 99.99% pathogen reduction at 2 liters per minute (lpm) flow with up to 10,000-hour UV-C LED lifetime. The self-contained device comprises the reactor, light source, ballast, and controls for simplified integration into water dispensing systems. It is NSF-55-2019 Certified for materials and structural integrity requirements, RoHS and CE compliant, and compliant with NSF/ANSI-61 for material safety and NSF/ANSI-372 as lead-free.
AquiSense president and CEO Oliver Lawal said, “The industry has expressed a need for a smaller unit, treating dispensing flow rates, but at high UV dose levels. The challenge was also to simplify the product design to reduce assembly time and cost for very high-volume OEM customers.” He noted that the company has already received large volume pre-orders.
As Lawal observed earlier this year in a UV-C LED market update, water disinfection systems represent a more mature market for UV-C technology, where water specialists are familiar with water treatment, standards, and conventional disinfection equipment, with plenty of room to grow. Back in March, he told LEDs, “For small systems, we’re past the early adopter stage. For municipal or larger industrial installations, we’re in the early adopter stage. I think the next five years will see us move into really significant market share.”
Regarding the Micro A unit, the AquiSense spokesperson told LEDs that the company sought to launch “an optimized, lower-cost option for those already using UV LED systems in PoD applications” but also “an entry into lower-cost Asian markets like Korea, India, Japan, and China [which] will increase the market size over 10X.”
LED benefits such as instant on/off and unlimited power cycling, consistent operating temperature, and select wavelengths between 250 and 300 nm enable a more energy-efficient design with reduced water-fouling potential compared to shorter lifetimes, operating temperature fluctuations, and the potential for wasted radiation with mercury-lamp-based systems, according to AquiSense.
CARRIE MEADOWS is editor-in-chief of LEDs Magazine, with 20-plus years’ experience in business-to-business publishing across technology markets including solid-state technology manufacturing, fiberoptic communications, machine vision, lasers and photonics, and LEDs and lighting.
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