Elga Process Water has supplied a new water-treatment system to the Pig Improvement Company. as part of PIC's stud development plan supplying high-quality boar semen.
PIC's stud near Winchester is the largest of its five UK farms and supplies semen from 250 boars to UK producers.
After collection and laboratory evaluation, the semen is mixed with an extender, which preserves the sperm for 5-7 days and dilutes it to give a controlled sperm concentration.
This allows multiple inseminations from a single ejaculate.
The extended semen is cooled and stored in lined containers prior to being packaged in Al doses.
The whole operation is BPEX audited, so quality control is vital.
Given the susceptibility of boar semen to clumping and microbial contamination, the water used for mixing the extender has to be chemically pure and bacteria free.
PIC originally installed a small Elga laboratory water purifier delivering 15 litres per hour into two 75 litre tanks, but by 2010 the demand for semen had almost doubled.
Elga Process Water designed and installed a new bespoke system.
A Purelab Prima 30 reverse-osmosis unit treats the mains water, delivering 30 litres an hour into a 750 litre tank.
The Purelab Prima removes more than 95 per cent of the dissolved salts from the water, together with 99 per cent of organic contaminants, particles and bacteria.
From the tank, the water is pumped through a 'polishing' system consisting of UV disinfection unit to control bacterial growth, a service deionisation (SDI) cylinder and a 0.2um membrane filter to ensure sterility.
Then it is delivered to a small stainless-steel ring main with an easy-to-manoeuvre flexible off-take.
Unused water is returned to the tank.
Continuously recirculating the water through the polishing system ensures that it always meets the quality targets.
When the polishing cylinder becomes exhausted it is simply returned to Elga Process Water in exchange for a regenerated one.
