Elga Process Water has provided its Centra system to the STFC Daresbury Laboratory's Science and Technology Centre (Astec).
Particle accelerators depend on 'radio frequency (RF) cavities', which add energy to accelerate electrons up to light speed.
Astec has a cavity-processing facility and Andy Goulden from Astec said: 'Cleaning and processing these RF cavities needs ultrapure water because any trace of contamination will reduce the efficiency, resulting in big energy losses.
'Therefore, we specified 18.2mohm.cm resistivity and 10ppb TOC.'
To meet this specification, Elga Process Water installed a water treatment system consisting of a Centra system with two service deionisation (SDI) cylinders.
The Centra's reverse-osmosis module removes more than 90 per cent of dissolved minerals and more than 99 per cent of organics and bacteria from the Daresbury mains water.
The resulting 'permeate' is delivered into the Centra's integral 350-litre storage tank, from which the treated water is continuously pumped through the two SDI cylinders operating in series.
This process 'polishes' the water to the required 18.2MW.cm resistivity.
Water quality is monitored between the two cylinders and, as soon as there is any deterioration, the cylinders are exchanged for fresh ones.
The polished water then flows through a UV disinfection unit with a final microfilter to control microbiological growth before being drawn off for use or returned to the Centra's tank.