The amount of Water purifiers in homes around South-Africa has increased drastically over the past years. Most people buy or refill with purified water from the local Water Shop or they have a water purifier machine at home. Today we would like to explain How Does Reverse Osmosis Water Filter Systems Works
With the number of impurities and diseases that are caused by water has made it a necessity of every house to have a water purifier. But still, there are people who are unaware of the impurities in the water and the damage it can make. If you are relying on some river or lake for water that is supplied by the Municipality, there are chances that fresh water supplied by municipality still has impurities in it.
Here is some of the deadliest diseases are caused by impure water:
- Cholera
- Guinea worm disease, Typhoid, and Dysentery
Water-related diseases cause 3.4 million deaths each year. Even after this if you still have a doubt about what water purifiers actually do and how it is beneficial for you.
Why is Reverse Osmosis the best solution for Pure Water?
Improves Taste
RO filtration improves taste, odor and appearance of water by removing contaminants that cause taste and odor problems..
Simple Maintenance
RO systems have very few moving or replaceable parts make RO systems easy to clean and service..
Saves Money
With an RO system, you can cancel your water delivery service and stop purchasing cases of bottled water. Reverse Osmosis filtration provides “better-than-bottled water” quality water for just pennies per gallon.
Removes Impurities
RO systems remove pollutants from water including nitrates, pesticides, sulfates, fluoride, bacteria, pharmaceuticals, arsenic and much more. An RO systems’ carbon filter will also remove chlorine and chloramines.
How does Reverse Osmosis purify water?
Reverse Osmosis works with pressure to force the water across a semi-permeable RO membrane, leaving almost all (around 95% to 99%) of dissolved salts behind in the reject stream. The amount of pressure required depends on the salt concentration of the feed water. The more concentrated the feed water, the more pressure is required to overcome the osmotic pressure.
The desalinated water that is demineralized or deionized, is called permeate (or product) water. The water stream that carries the concentrated contaminants that did not pass through the RO membrane is called the reject (or concentrate) stream
What contaminants will Reverse Osmosis remove from water?
Reverse Osmosis is capable of removing up to 99%+ of :
- Dissolved salts (ions), particles,
- colloids,
- organics,
- bacteria and pyrogens from the feed water (although an RO system should not be relied upon to remove 100% of bacteria and viruses).
An RO membrane rejects contaminants based on their size and charge. Any contaminant that has a molecular weight greater than 200 is likely rejected by a properly running RO system (for comparison a water molecule has a MW of 18). Likewise, the greater the ionic charge of the contaminant, the more likely it will be unable to pass through the RO membrane. For example, a sodium ion has only one charge (monovalent) and is not rejected by the RO membrane as well as calcium for example, which has two charges. Likewise, this is why an RO system does not remove gases such as CO2 very well because they are not highly ionized (charged) while in solution and have a very low molecular weight. Because an RO system does not remove gases, the permeate water can have a slightly lower than normal pH level depending on CO2 levels in the feed water as the CO2 is converted to carbonic acid.
Reverse Osmosis is very effective in treating brackish, surface and ground water for both large and small flows applications.
Some examples of industries that use RO water include
- pharmaceutical
- boiler feed water
- food and beverage
- metal finishing and
- semiconductor manufacturing to name a few
It’s ALWAYD advisable to get your water source tested to ensure you use the correct filtration process (if needed) to avoid fouling.
So what is the cost of a Household Water Purification System or Insutrial Water Purification Plant