The system of Reverse Osmosis is the most popular water filtration method in use today

Posted by HydroSolutions on October 27th, 2016

Introduction:

Water occupies more than 70% of the Earth. In spite of this huge amount of water, the human population faces a shortage of drinking water all over the world. The main reason is that an overwhelming portion of this water on the Earth is seawater. This salty water is not potable. Hence, there arises a need for finding ways to make this water fit for drinking purposes. Many countries have installed water filtration plants that purify this seawater making it potable for their human population. There are many methods of purifying water, out of which the most effective and popular one is the ‘reverse osmosis’ method. We shall look at this method in brief.

The Reverse Osmosis (RO) method:

The normal flow of water or any liquid is from a low concentration area to a higher concentrated one. You can see this process in any filtration method. If you use a semi permeable membrane to filter the impurities, they call the process as osmosis. However, in the reverse osmosis method, they reverse the process. The water flows from a higher concentrated area to a lower one through a series of filters including a semi permeable membrane. Naturally, you require a certain amount of pressure to ensure the flow of water in this manner. This is the simple functioning of an RO system.

This is one of the ideal systems to remove dissolved impurities in the water such as salts, lead, pesticides, etc. This system can also filter out the bacteria and viruses whereby you get fresh and clean water to drink. The system is such that it will allow the flow of water in a single direction alone. There can be no reverse flow of water. This ensures that the water remains free of any contaminant.

This RO system makes use of carbon filters, RO membranes, and other kinds of sediment filters to eliminate the impurities. The question on everyone’s mind would be as to what happens to the impurities eventually. The reverse osmosis system is such that it ensures the flushing out of the impurities through a separate outlet into the drain.   

The RO system:

This system involves the passage of the water through four stages. The first stage is the sediment filter for the removal of the visible sediments, dirt, etc that could damage the RO membranes. The second stage is the passing of the water through carbon filters for removing the chlorine and other dissolved salts. The third stage involves the use of the reverse osmosis membrane for filtering the other contaminants. The final stage comprises a polished filter that can remove the bad odors and ensure outstanding clean drinking water.

The advantages:

You get clean water to drink. Do you require any better advantage than this? This water is bereft of all dissolved salts, bacteria, and viruses. You would get the optimum clean water to drink.

Final thoughts:

The Reverse osmosis system has become very popular today. This is the need of the hour as well.