Treatment Process Control
Water Utilities
Confident Control of Treatment Performance
Reliable, data-driven control of treatment processes for safe water reuse and compliant discharge.
Modern water treatment is no longer defined only by achieving basic effluent standards. It is increasingly expected to deliver consistently verified microbiological quality. With the rapid expansion of water reuse applications, utilities must demonstrate that treatment processes reliably reduce microbial loads to levels suitable for agriculture, industrial use, environmental discharge, and in some cases indirect or direct potable reuse.
rqmicro rapid microbial solutions provide timely, quantitative insight into microbial dynamics across treatment stages, enabling operators to move from retrospective compliance testing to proactive process control. This shift supports more stable operations, improved treatment assurance, and stronger confidence in meeting evolving regulatory and reuse requirements.
As water reuse continues to scale globally, the ability to control and verify microbiological performance in real time has become a defining factor for sustainable water management. The United Nations and other international bodies have highlighted water reuse as a key lever for addressing global water scarcity, further increasing the importance of robust microbial risk control in treatment operations.
Increasingly Complex and Performance-Driven Treatment Systems
Ensuring consistent microbial safety in increasingly complex and performance-driven treatment systems
Treatment processes are becoming more advanced and more tightly regulated as water reuse and environmental discharge standards evolve. Utilities must ensure that microbial risks are consistently reduced to acceptable levels, often under variable influent conditions and increasing system complexity. Traditional microbiological testing methods are too slow to support real-time process control, providing results only after water has already moved through key treatment steps. This delay limits the ability to respond to process deviations, optimize performance dynamically, or verify microbial barrier effectiveness in time to prevent risk.
Water utilities today operate under growing pressure to ensure that treatment processes consistently achieve stringent microbiological quality targets while maintaining efficiency and resource optimization. However, several key challenges limit the ability to implement effective real-time process control:
- Delayed microbiological feedback
- Conventional culture-based methods require 18–48 hours to deliver results, meaning operators receive information only after water has already passed through critical treatment steps. This delay prevents timely intervention and limits the ability to correct process deviations in real time.
- Increasing complexity of treatment trains
- Modern treatment systems often combine multiple barriers such as biological treatment, membrane filtration, and advanced disinfection. While these systems improve performance, they also increase operational complexity and make it more difficult to understand where microbial risks may arise or persist.
- Variable and unpredictable influent quality
- Influent water quality can fluctuate significantly due to rainfall events, industrial discharges, seasonal effects, or upstream system dynamics. These rapid changes require equally rapid monitoring to ensure that treatment processes remain effective under all conditions.
- Rising expectations for water reuse and compliance assurance
- The global expansion of water reuse for agricultural, industrial, and potable applications has significantly raised expectations for microbiological safety. Utilities must not only meet regulatory limits but also demonstrate robust, traceable control of microbial risk throughout the treatment process.
Together, these challenges highlight a critical gap between the need for real-time process understanding and the limitations of traditional microbiological monitoring approaches.
Implementing the rqmicro Solution
Our Approach
Implementing rapid microbiological monitoring in treatment process control requires a solution that fits seamlessly into existing operational and analytical frameworks. Water utilities typically operate well-established sampling routines, laboratory workflows, and process control systems, leaving limited room for disruption or complex system changes. rqmicro.COUNT is designed to integrate into these environments with minimal adaptation, enabling utilities to introduce rapid microbial insights step by step while maintaining operational continuity, regulatory alignment, and full compatibility with existing treatment monitoring practices.
1
Define Critical Control Points in the Treatment Train
Identify key stages within the treatment process where microbiological performance must be monitored, such as influent, post-biological treatment, post-filtration, and final effluent.
2
Integrate Sampling into Treatment Stages
Design sampling routines that reflect process dynamics, regulatory requirements, and reuse objectives. Ensure sampling locations provide meaningful insight into microbial barrier performance.
3
Implement Rapid Microbial Analysis
Deploy rqmicro.COUNT to generate fast, quantitative measurements of microbial parameters including E. coli and ICC across selected process points.
4
Integrate Results into Operational Decision-Making
Use rapid microbial data to support process adjustments, validate treatment performance, and strengthen compliance reporting. Continuously refine process control strategies based on real-time insights.
Benefits for Your Operation
From delayed verification to real-time microbial process intelligence
rqmicro.COUNT enables a fundamental shift in how water utilities understand and control treatment performance. By providing rapid, quantitative measurements of key microbial indicators such as E. coli and Intact Cell Counts (ICC), operators gain near real-time visibility into biological process behavior across the treatment train. This allows utilities to move beyond retrospective compliance reporting toward active, data-driven process optimization and risk management.
Process Visibility
rqmicro.COUNT delivers same-day quantitative data on microbial parameters such as E. coli and Intact Cell Counts (ICC). This enables operators to monitor treatment performance in near real time and detect deviations early.
Optimized Treatment Performance
With timely microbiological feedback, operators can fine-tune treatment processes such as filtration, disinfection, and biological stages. This supports more stable performance while reducing unnecessary over-treatment and resource consumption.
Stronger Microbial Risk Management
Early and accurate microbial information improves the ability to assess treatment barriers and respond to potential process upsets. This reduces uncertainty and strengthens overall system safety for reuse and discharge applications.
Compliance and Water Reuse Readiness
Reliable microbiological data supports compliance with increasingly stringent water quality standards for reuse and environmental discharge. It also strengthens confidence in water reuse schemes across agriculture, industry, and potable applications.
Solutions for This Application
Brief introduction explaining how the products support this application.
rqmicro.COUNT
A cartridge-based flow cytometer that rapidly quantifies total viable bacteria and specific pathogens using the rqmicro Test Kits. The instrument delivers actionable results in as little as 30 minutes. rqmicro.COUNT is designed for both laboratory and on-site use, enabling reliable microbiological monitoring.
Key Benefits
- Decentralized testing
- High-speed single-cell analysis
- Easy to use
Cloud Solution
The rqmicro Cloud Solution is a secure, browser-based platform for storing, analyzing, and sharing microbiological test results. With customizable dashboards, automated alerts, and reporting tools, it supports efficient monitoring, compliance, and data-driven decision-making across multiple sites.
Key Benefits
- Centralized Data Management
- Real-Time Monitoring & Alerts
- Simplified Reporting & Compliance
Test Kits
The rqmicro Test Kits are ready-to-use assay kits designed for rapid microbiological water analysis with rqmicro.COUNT. Available for Intact Cell Count (ICC), Legionella, and E. coli, they combine simple sample preparation with highly sensitive detection to deliver fast, reliable, and actionable results.
Key Benefits
- Rapid Results
- Reliable Detection
- Easy-to-Use Workflow
Frequently Asked Questions
Here are some common questions about the test method, instrumentation and user requirements.
rqmicro combines three core technologies in a single workflow:
- Microbiological Assays detection and quantification of microorganisms including immunoassays for the selective quantification of target bacteria.
- Microfluidic cartridge technology with integrated immunomagnetic separation (IMS) for automated sample processing.
- Flow Cytometry for rapid detection and quantification of bacteria, including viability assessment.
This integrated approach enables rapid microbiological testing without the need for lengthy cultivation steps.
Single-use cartridges provide several advantages:
- Ensure standardized workflows
- Reduce maintenance requirements
- Minimize the risk of cross-contamination
- Eliminate complex cleaning procedures
- Enable operation by non-specialist users
The cartridge-based design supports both laboratory and field applications.
The rqmicro platform is designed for the detection and quantification of total bioburden and also specific bacteria. Depending on the assay, users can analyze:
- Total viable bacteria (Intact Cell Count)
- Total bacteria (Total Cell Count)
- Legionella (L.p. SG 1, L.p. SG 1-15 and Legionella spp.)
- E. coli (incl. Big 6 and O157)
Traditional culture methods only detect microorganisms that grow on agar plates. Many bacteria can remain viable but fail to form colonies under cultivation conditions.
rqmicro uses cultivation-independent flow cytometry, allowing the detection of viable cells regardless of their ability to grow on culture media. This provides faster results and a more complete picture of microbial contamination.
Flow cytometry is a laser-based analytical method that measures individual cells suspended in a fluid stream.
As cells pass through the laser beam, fluorescent signals are generated and detected by the instrument. Thousands of cells can be analyzed every second, enabling rapid and highly sensitive microbiological testing.
rqmicro uses fluorescence-based flow cytometry together with viability staining. Fluorescent dyes interact differently with live and dead cells based on membrane integrity and physiological status.
The instrument analyzes these fluorescence patterns to distinguish viable cells from non-viable cells, providing rapid live/dead information within the measurement process.
Viability information helps users:
- Assess microbiological risk more accurately
- Evaluate treatment effectiveness
- Detect bacteria that may be missed by culture methods
- Monitor changes in water systems in near real time
This enables faster operational decisions and improved process control.
VBNC stands for Viable But Non-Culturable.
These bacteria are alive and may remain metabolically active, but they do not grow on standard culture media. As a result, conventional cultivation methods can underestimate the true microbial load.
Flow cytometry can detect these cells, allowing a more comprehensive assessment of water quality and microbiological risk.
qmicro.COUNT is designed for routine operation with minimal training.
Users do not need to be flow cytometry experts. The cartridge-based workflow and automated analysis reduce operator dependency and simplify routine testing.
Contact an Expert
Christophe Gutknecht
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