Pharmaceuticals and Cleanrooms

Why Is Humidity Control Important for Pharmaceuticals, Labs and Cleanrooms?

Cleanroom humidity control is essential in industries where precision, sterility, and environmental control are critical, particularly in pharmaceutical manufacturing, laboratories, and research facilities. These environments are used to test, develop, and produce sensitive products, requiring stringent control over airborne particles, temperature, and humidity.

To maintain cleanliness, external air is filtered through high-efficiency HVAC systems before entering the cleanroom. In addition to particle control, cleanroom humidity control is vital to prevent microbial growth, preserve material stability, and protect sensitive equipment.

Conditions typically range from 18°C to 22°C with 40–50% RH, though exact requirements may vary by application.

In pharmaceutical and lab environments, maintaining stable humidity is integral to product quality, safety, and regulatory compliance. Fluctuations can impact chemical stability, research accuracy, and create conditions for electrostatic discharge (ESD), which can damage sensitive equipment and compromise processes.

Clean Room Applications:

Pharmaceuticals and Laboratories:
Pharmaceutical companies and research labs rely on cleanrooms to prevent microbial growth and contamination during production, testing, and analysis. High airflow is often required to maintain sterility, but this can reduce humidity levels, causing static build-up and material degradation. Conversely, during tablet pressing and packaging, excess moisture must be avoided to prevent spoilage and ensure the integrity of medicines. These precise and sometimes opposing requirements highlight the importance of reliable humidity control.
Food Manufacturing:
Cleanrooms help extend shelf life by protecting products from bacteria, airborne contaminants, and moisture during production and packaging.
Semiconductors and Electronics:
Cleanrooms in this sector require tightly controlled RH (typically around 40%) to prevent static discharge that can damage delicate circuitry and components.
Aerospace and Defence:
These industries use cleanrooms to construct highly sensitive equipment, where humidity control ensures material stability and process accuracy.

How is Humidity Controlled in a Clean Room?

Humidity is managed using advanced sensors, hygrometers, humidifiers, and dehumidifiers—integrated with the HVAC system and tailored to the cleanroom’s ISO classification and specific use case. Equipment is often installed in critical zones like air handling units (AHUs), ductwork, or directly in-room to maintain exact RH levels essential for pharmaceutical and laboratory standards.

Types of Clean Room Humidifiers

Steam humidifiers are widely used for maintaining sterile, controlled environments in pharmaceutical cleanrooms, laboratories, and electronics manufacturing facilities. They produce clean, bacteria-free moisture that supports strict hygiene standards and protects sensitive materials and processes.

Both electrode and resistive steam humidifiers are suitable for these applications. Resistive models are particularly well-suited for precise relative humidity (RH) control, ideal for meeting the strict standards of GMP-regulated settings.

In electronics cleanrooms, maintaining the right humidity levels is essential, especially in winter, when pre-heated air can become overly dry. Low humidity increases the risk of electrostatic discharge (ESD), which can damage delicate components like circuit boards. Steam humidifiers help prevent this by introducing consistent, sterile moisture into the air.

Unlike adiabatic systems, steam humidifiers use heat to generate sterile steam, eliminating the risk of introducing minerals, bacteria, or other contaminants into the cleanroom environment.

Types of Clean Room Dehumidifiers

Desiccant dehumidifiers are perfect for ultra-dry environments in pharmaceutical, electronics, aerospace, and defence applications. Desiccant systems can maintain RH levels as low as 0%, providing stable, precise performance regardless of external conditions, crucial for moisture-sensitive processes and compliance with strict quality standards.

We Can Help with Clean Room Humidity Control

Facing humidity control challenges in your cleanroom, lab, or pharmaceutical facility? Our experts can help.

With years of experience across various industries, we deliver tailored, high-performance solutions that ensure environmental stability, compliance, and operational efficiency.

Benefits:

Achieve stable conditions with close control
Comply with industry health and safety standards
Reduce waste
Improve production

Why choose us

We understand pharamcueticals, labs and cleanrooms

Through years of experience and knowledge, we’ve learned a thing or two about your industry. We understand the environment, what you are trying to achieve and the common problems that require humidity control.