How Does Reverse Osmosis Work - Introduction
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| How Does Reverse Osmosis Work to Filter Water |
When it comes to drinking water, most of have reservations in trusting any purifier or purification system the markets presents to them. Keeping in mind the dire importance of consuming clean and purified water, markets are flooded with multiple purification system options. However, a wise consumer is one who settles for a safe means, something that they are certain of using and of which their whole family can benefit. One of the most heard of system is the Reverse Osmosis system. This type of a system is very helpful provided the purifier does adhere to everything related to the system.
What Is Reverse Osmosis?
A lot of people are curious and wish to know how does reverse osmosis work. Before we get on to that question, let us understand basics revolving around Reverse Osmosis. The entire process may seem technical and complex but in reality, it is not that way. In fact, if you get to know of the system, you will understand how disciplined the entire design is and which is why it is true to believe that something like RO system can actually generate pure water.
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| What Is Reverse Osmosis? |
Reverse osmosis came into light at a time when experts were running experiments on ocean water. They were looking at means and ways to desalinate ocean water. Given that ocean water consists of immense salt and is not consumable, this is where the experts tried to work on something that can change the elements in the water and remove the salt from it. With immense work done in this field, it seems like they managed to come with a system that is of great use and can work in just about any set up, whether home or industrial.
Reverse Osmosis as a system works on something called the membrane technology. Its filtration process helps in removing different kinds of unwanted molecules and ion from the water by making use of a force or pressure. This system does not work on one stage; it has multiple stages of filtration until the final product comes through. At every stage, you will notice that the solute is held back on the side that is applying pressure and the pure water is allowed to pass through on to the other side.
How a Reverse Osmosis Membrane Work?
If you wish to understand how does reverse osmosis work, you need to get a good understanding of how a membrane works. The membrane plays a vital role in the entire reverse osmosis procedure. Given that in this purification system, the dissolved inorganic solids are removed from water by using pressure, the pathway where it passes from is called a semi permeable membrane. It is this membrane that lets only pure water pass by but not contaminants or any impurities, these unnecessary solids actually flush down.
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| How a Reverse Osmosis Membrane Work? |
The entire process related to the membrane is very simple, all that it does is works like a junction where the water with dissolved solids reaches the membrane and it flushes out the large unwanted molecules to provide with pure solvent.
Factors that Enhance the Reverse Osmosis Mechanism
If you ask an expert how does reverse osmosis work, the answer that they give will include a list of factors that contribute to the entire process of purification. Some significant factors that make RO a reliable process that it is includes the incoming water pressure, temperature of the water, types of dissolved solids and the number of such dissolved solids and lastly the quality of filters in the RO system. Above all these is the membrane in the system,it is a checkpointwhere the purification begins, and avoids the unwanted solids without the membrane it is not a purification process.
Reverse Osmosis Principle
Reverse osmosis works on a very basic principle and that is to use external added energy. The energy it uses incorporates a lot of force. How does reverse osmosis work is a common query online, and the immense literature on it clearly states that the natural energy or basic energy in basic filtration systems is not good enough for the water to purify at its best consuming shape. Hence, this system is entirely based on using artificial energy with some extra force.
While the system uses a high force of energy, you should note that it also helps in adding the much-needed pressure on the salt to help push the water into the filters so that it excludes the contaminants and easily passes through the membrane. The best thing about reverse osmosis system is that its purification systems are so good that it literally leaves behind almost 95% of dissolved salts. There is something called the reject stream where the unwanted water enters and runs through the different filters for better filtration.
Pressure is the key in such systems and this is what makes a key difference in the entire process. The pressure used in reverse osmosis system is generally very high. This is usually what sets apart this system from the rest. Pressure when high helps push the unwanted contaminants away in the reject stream and when of no use they are flushed down. On the other hand, if the pressure is not very high, then the concentration of the feed water becomes more.
Stages in which reverse osmosis works
To know how does reverse osmosis work; you need to get a good understanding of the multiple stages as well. Reverse osmosis can be conducted in a 3 stage setup, 4 stage setup and even a 5. We are discussing a 4-stage set up, and, mentioned below is a distinctive insight on the different stages including its major components.
Sediment Pre-Filter
In this filtration system, the polypropylene helps remove any kind of rush, sediment particles or dirt to something as low as 5 microns. You will come across different kinds of sediment cartridges. The good thing about such cartridges is that it can be washed for a few times and reuse it.
Carbon Pre-Filter
In this filter, an activated carbon block filter removes odor, chemical contaminants, chlorine as down as 10 microns. The filtration capability of this filter is slightly better than the previous stage. It helps in removing giardia, lead reduction and cryptosporidium. As you noticed, the explanation is done for 4 stage reverse osmosis procedure but if you look at a 5 stage purification process, the only difference would be an addition of a third housing system, meaning more carbon-blocking cartridge.
The Membrane
Membrane also known as the Reverse Osmosis membrane helps remove the total dissolved solids to almost 95% efficiency and down to almost .0001 microns. It makes use of film composite membrane that is specifically manufactured for water purification process.
Post Carbon Filter
Once the carbon has been activated and the membrane does its job, the next big challenge is that of post filter. This is a coconut shell like component that gives the final touch to the water before it enters the storage tank or just before you start using it.
This filtering system helps remove any missed contaminants, which does not happen often because the cartridges and previous filtering system does its job efficiently but in case if it does happen, this last stage manages to clear it off the hook.
Different Types of Reverse Osmosis Membranes
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| Different Types of Reverse Osmosis Membranes |
In a reverse osmosis system, membrane plays a very important role. It is only through the membrane that there is freely permeable means for the water. With the high pressure, the water becomes free from all the dissolved components. The pressure set through the membrane is to make it tolerant enough to manage the pH levels of water and making it resistant to chemicals and bacteria.
Reverse Osmosis offers three different kinds of membranes, cellulosic, thin film composite and last is the fully aromatic polyamide. Below mentioned is an overview on all the three kind of membranes.
Cellulosic Membrane
This type of membrane is amongst the first of its kinds. When initial work on reverse osmosis was on, this type of membrane was made use of. Such a membrane is more like asymmetric and comes with thin yet dense surface with a porous structure. The thin dense layer is what helps in rejecting the unwanted components in the water. Systems incorporating this type of membrane provide the required structure strength to merge with the porous substructure that eventually reduces the product flux.
Such membranes come with high level of permeability but the one thing that needs to be watched out for in this membrane is that it rejects poorly the low weighing molecules. This membrane was designed by the experts to improve on the salt rejection based characteristics and lower the susceptibility towards the pH level brining a microbial attack.
Thin Film Composites Membrane
The name says it all; this type of a membrane comes with a thin cum dense forming a surface film on the porous substructure. This membrane is constructed with two lawyers that are very different from each other, helping in getting not just low solute but also high water flux. The thin layer measures from being 0.01 thick to 0.1 of micrometers.
Aromatic Polyamide Membrane
The third and last of the kinds is this type of membrane that helps in getting a better resistance to biological attacks as compared to the other kinds of membranes. Therefore, this one definitely takes the lead. It also comes with asymmetric structure and thin cum dense layer. It operates on the pH levels from the range between 4 to 11, and if overused, it can lead to membrane degradation. Though they can withstand reasonably high temperature of water, it should be watched out for all times.
Water Quality Post Reverse Osmosis
When water is provided with dissolved solids, reverse osmosis is used to purify it constantly at different levels of filtration in the RO system. For instance, if the feed water has around 300 ppm of dissolved solids, the product water may be around 15 to 30 ppm. In this particular system, a particular range of water comes with some amount of rejection and it recovers only a certain percentage. If the percentage of recovery is high, the percentage of rejection will be less.
Why Is Reverse Osmosis Important For Filtration?
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| Why Is Reverse Osmosis Important For Filtration |
Reverse osmosis is extremely important for filtration and that has been stated over a couple of times in the above-mentioned pointers. Whenever you thought as to how does reverse osmosis work, now you have clarity on it and you certainly realized how important it is for filtration. The activated carbon filters located at different levels of purification and its special membrane ensures complete purification. They are responsible to remove the synthetic contaminants from the water and cleanse it properly. In fact, this is the perfect point to establish a comparison between reverse osmosis over the other contemporaries. It is vital to mention that not all purifiers can remove chemicals or other harmful elements from the water and this poses as a huge threat and harm to the ones who consume such water. Therefore, it wouldn’t be wrong to suggest that carbon filters in reverse osmosis system are by far the best solution to filtration concerns that are rising over the course of time.
Maintenance of Reverse Osmosis System
While this space has just about everything you need to know on the process and working methodology of the purification system, what you should also note is that it works well if you maintain it right. No matter what kind of purification system you use, this or any other, if it is termed as best, it is going to serve its purpose only when you maintain it well.
There are two ways of maintaining it, first, you can do the run through yourself and second is when you find the need to call in a technician. If you can manage on your own, then you should go for it or else calling in a professional is definitely a wise choice as it saves up on the additional damage that can be caused due to mishandling the system.
How Does Reverse Osmosis Work - Conclusion
Reverse osmosis system is all about brilliance; it does its job of purifying water very efficiently and certainly comes off as a great investment to make. For someone looking for understanding what the system is all about before going in for the plunge, above-mentioned pointers can be of great help. It has an in depth explanation of the different components associated with the process and system.
