The water condition in many nations is appalling although there may be certain processes in place by the local authorities to provide clean water. But the increasingly intense air pollution, soil pollution and global warming factors have caused the water quality for consumption to be compromised. Hence, reverse osmosis technology is now applied to correct the situation for the consumers’ benefit.
Definition
Reverse osmosis, or RO, is known as today’s advanced purification process for water. It was originally developed to transform sea water into potable water for sailors and submarine crews.
RO technology is a simple membrane filtration technology which forces the pressured water through really tiny pores on a membrane that is semi-permeable. Advanced RO units combine this membrane technology and carbon cum mechanical filtration for better quality potable water that the home wants.
RO process
Today’s advanced RO systems have the public-supplied water flowing through a carbon pre-filter to remove all possible organic contaminants like chlorine. Then, the water is pushed through the RO membrane which is an extremely tight sheet filter that passes water through but not dissolved solids; hence, sodium, arsenic and lead impurities are rejected. The membrane is cleansed simultaneously before flowing out through the home drain pipes.
Once the water is purified, it would be stored in the specific storage tank to be used when needed. The purified water would go through a second carbon filter when the tap opens to go through a final polish before giving out drinking water from the tap.
This simplified RO process omits other essential sections of processing such as sediment filtration, additional carbon filtration, flow control devices, auto shutoff and essential check valves.
RO processing stages
The membrane in the RO system forms the primary piece of the total processing system; hence, great care is required to protect the membrane; pre-filtration is the key.
Stage 1 Pre-filtration
This stage comprises sediment filter of 5 micron for removing various sediments like rust, sands and dirt. It is not preferred to use 1 micron filter as blockage occurs easily to impact the system’s performance.
Stage 2 Carbon Block Filter
This stage uses a carbon block filter to remove any presence of chlorine, heavy metals and contaminants which may be present.
Stage 3 RO Membrane
This is the crux of the matter in RO systems. The RO membrane or RO-MAN functions to remove up to 98% of dissolved solids in the water. RO-MAN utilizes a “thin composite film” that is of high quality for the best effect.
Understanding Reverse Osmosis for Health Sake