A little info on R/O...
Anyone who has been through a high school science class will likely be familiar with the term osmosis. The process was first described by a French Scientist in 1748, who noted that water spontaneously diffused through a pig bladder membrane into alcohol. Over 200 years later, a modification of this process known as reverse osmosis allows people throughout the world to affordably convert undesireable water into water that is virtually free of health or aesthetic contaminants. Reverse osmosis systems can be found providing treated water from the kitchen counter in a private residence to installations used in manned spacecraft.
Reverse Osmosis is a technology that is found virutally anywhere pure water is needed; common uses include:
- Drinking Water
- Humidification
- Ice-Making
- Car Wash Water Reclamation
- Rinse Waters
- Biomedical Applications
- Laboratory Applications
- Photography
- Pharmaceutical Production
- Kidney Dialysis
- Water used in chemcial processes
- Cosmetics
- Animal Feed
- Hatcheries
- Restaurants
- Greenhouses
- Metal Plating Applications
- Wastewater Treatment
- Boiler Water
- Battery Water
- Semiconductor production
- Hemodialysis
What Reverse Osmosis Treats
Reverse osmosis (RO) can treat for a wide variety of health and aesthetic contaminants. Effectively designed, RO equipment can treat for a wide variety of aesthetic contaminants that cause unpleasant taste, color, and odor problems like a salty or soda taste caused by chlorides or sulfates.
RO can also be effective for treating health contaminants like arsenic, asbestos, atrazine (herbicides/pesticides). fluoride, lead, mercury, nitrate, and radium. When using appropriate carbon prefiltering (commonly included with most RO systems), additional treatment can also be provided for such "volatile" contaminants as benzene, trichloroethylene, trihalomethanes, and radon. Some RO equipment is also capable of treating for biological contaminants like Cryptosporidium. The Water Quality Association (WQA) cautions, however, that while RO membranes typically remove virtually all known microorganisms and most other health contaminants, design consderations may prevent a unit from offering foolproof protection when incorporated into a consumer drinking water system.
When looking for a product to treat for a given health contaminant, care should be used to find products that have been tested successfully for such purposes at a quality testing laboratory.
Conclusion
Reverse osmosis very effective application of an established scientific process. Whether it is used to meet the needs of a typical family of four, or the needs of an industrial operation requiring thousands of gallons per day, it can be a cost effective to provide the required quantity of highly treated water. With continual advances in system and membrane design that boost efficiency and reliability, RO has and will continue to play a major role in water treatment for years to come.
