Isowater achieves first market-grade production of deuterium oxide
January 31, 2023
Isowater Corporation, a member of the Key DH Technologies group of companies and a leading global vendor of deuterium oxide (D2O), has achieved a significant technological breakthrough with its first production of market-grade D2O. This milestone advances the company toward its goal of producing sustainable long-term commercial supplies of deuterium oxide for the world's life science and high technology industries.
The deuterium oxide was produced using proprietary process technology developed by Isowater to enrich natural background concentrations or low grade D2O to a targeted deuterium concentration that meets the requirements of many applications. Work is continuing to optimize the system to ensure the company can finalize a commercial product that is consistently within control limits.
"This milestone is the culmination of a multi-year-long research and development program to reliably produce commercial-grade deuterium oxide for our customers," said Andrew Stuart, Isowater Chairman and CEO. "This advances us on a pathway to become a producer that can meet the growing global need for a reliable and secure supply of deuterium oxide."
Global demand for deuterium oxide is expanding rapidly for use in semiconductors, optical fibres, organic light emitting diodes (OLEDs), research chemicals, medical diagnostics and pharmaceuticals. This demand has driven a 300 percent increase in shipments by Isowater in the last three years alone.
However, the available global supply of commercial-grade deuterium oxide is limited. Demand exceeds supply, and Isowater has been developing systems to address this situation. Aside from increasing the D2O supply, Isowater's technology is designed to produce deuterium oxide at near-zero emissions – a dramatic improvement over conventional hydrogen sulphide- and ammonia-based enrichment processes.
"Companies are investing hundreds of millions of dollars into product lines that use deuterium oxide as a core material to improve performance for a healthier and more connected world," Stuart said. "Isowater is working with clients across the globe to develop a strong and sustainable supply chain that provides them with the confidence to invest further into capital-intensive deuterium-based products."
Isowater's clients use D2O to produce semiconductors with a higher circuit density that can run at higher temperatures, optical fibres that pass more light, OLED displays with sharper colour contrasts, medicines that have reduced side effects and longer therapeutic benefits, and for mRNA stabilization and many other uses.
