Reverse Osmosis And How Does It Work

One of the greatest dilemmas in the U.S. is the chlorine contents present in the drinking water. If your tap water comes from a local water treatment facilities, if you pay water bill, then chlorine is your biggest problem. There are more then 2000 chemicals in our tap water. Any of them could be cause health complications. Several companies offer whole house reverse osmosis as a solution to the water problems.

RO or reverse osmosis is a process of purifying water or other liquids such as fruit juices by passing them through a semi permeable membrane that filters out unnecessary substances. In reverse osmosis, water, under high pressure is enforced through a membrane. The membrane entraps dirt, mud and debris. Many public facilities use reverse osmosis as one-step in their water treatments. In rural areas, where water comes from a river or even an ocean, whole house reverse osmosis can be used to make water suitable for kitchen use.

For most of us, our tap water is already "suitable" for kitchen use. It is just not that safe. One of the big problems is that water treatment services add chlorine to the water to protect the membrane in reverse osmosis systems from rot.

Chlorine is basically a disinfectant. It is really just bleach. It kills living organisms that can grow on a reverse osmosis membrane. So, logically, the membrane does not filter out the chlorine.
If your question is how does reverse osmosis work to filter chemicals out of the water, the answer is that it does not. The "holes" in the membrane are simply not small enough to trap chemicals, such as chlorine. So, if someone is trying to sell you a whole house reverse osmosis system and your water comes from a water treatment facility, do not buy it.

A whole house reverse osmosis system is a waste of money for most people. And, even for those who need one, it is a waste of water. For every one gallon of water that is filtered, about five gallons are wasted.

Another disadvantage to a whole house reverse osmosis system is that it removes minerals from the water. We need those trace minerals. They are good for our health. Certain industries need de-mineralized water and that was one reason the system was originally designed. It was not designed as a solution for people to have cleaner, better tasting drinking water.
If you want better drinking water, you want a multi-stage filter that includes a carbon activated filter. That is the bottom line.

Hopefully, this information answers your questions about how does reverse osmosis work.

Industrial Waste Water Treatment

Wastewater Treatment in industries can help save costs and prevents hazards. There are various types of contamination of wastewater that need treatment.



Water contamination from solids is treated using sedimentation, filtration or ultra-filtration. The uncomplicated sedimentation techniques are useful in many cases while the slurry or sludge is removed in a cost effective manner.


Where the density of the solid is closer to the density of water serious problems may arise and these are treated using filtration or ultra-filtration techniques. In case sedimentation or filterability of small particles is a problem flocculants are used in the treatment process to resolve the problem. These are also used in swimming pool or drinking water filtration to help eradicate microscopic elements.


Where wastewater is contaminated by oil and grease an American Petroleum Institute (API) oil-water separator is used. Certain oils can be removed from the surface of water using skimming apparatus while hydraulic oils and those that have sullied to a certain degree require further treatment. With the separator the oil rises to the surface while the solids settle down. The water layer is sent for further removal of residual oil and then to a biological treatment unit for removal of detrimental dissolved chemical compounds. Another option is the parallel plate separator that includes tilted parallel plate assemblies also called as parallel packs. It requires significantly less space than a conventional API separator to achieve the same results.





In the category of soft organics, organic material from plants and animals can be treated using extended conventional wastewater treatment processes such as activated sludge or trickling filter. Problems can arise When the wastewater is excessively diluted with washing water or concentrated with blood problem can arise. Cleaning agents, disinfectants, pesticides, or antibiotics can have a harmful impacts on treatment processes.


Hard organics are synthetic organics such as solvents, paints, pharmaceuticals, pesticides and coking products. Water treatment methods include distillation, adsorption, incineration, chemical immobilization or landfill disposal. Some detergents can cause biological degradation and require a customized form of wastewater treatment. Water has to be tested to verify the characteristic of the pollutant. Another type of contamination found in industrial wastewater is caused by acids and alkalis. This can be treated using Neutralization. This process results in a solid residue that can also be toxic and requires treatment.


Wastewater streams with hardness ions can be easily treated through a process of de-ionization. Toxic materials in wastewater are metals, acids and alkalis, non-metallic elements such as arsenic or selenium. These can often be precipitated out by changing the pH or by treatment with other chemicals.