What Is Reverse Osmosis Filtration?

You have probably come across units utilizing reverse osmosis filtration if you have considered installing a water filtration system. They can remove many contaminants and are known for producing superior quality water. Keep reading to learn more about how they work.

What Is Reverse Osmosis Filtration?

A reverse osmosis water treatment system is widely considered the gold standard for residential and commercial water filtration. In addition to straining particulates, it can also remove potentially harmful chemicals and metals from the water supply. To fully understand how reverse osmosis works, it may be helpful to learn the basics of osmosis.

What Is Osmosis?

Osmosis is the process by which a solution seeks to create a state of balance by passing through a semi-permeable barrier. It relies on diffusion to move the water through the barrier while holding any dissolved substances on the original side. The water moves from the side with a lower concentration of particulates to the one with a higher concentration until there is an equal level of dissolved particles on each side and pressure is stabilized between them.

Osmosis is a critically important force in nature. It works in various situations to maintain appropriate living conditions and helps plants absorb water and nutrients from their surroundings. It is entirely passive and requires no external energy input.

How Does Reverse Osmosis Water Filtration Work?

As its name implies, reverse osmosis flips the movement of the solution being filtered. Instead of the pure water moving to the contaminated site, the unfiltered water supply is pushed through a semi-permeable membrane to create pure water.

While the reverse osmosis process produces very high-quality, clean water, it also generates considerable wastewater. This sludge is discharged, either into a drain or reclaimed back into the water supply to be filtered again.

The Reverse Osmosis Membrane

The semi-permeable membrane is an essential component in a R/O water filtration system. It determines how many particulates pass through into the final purified water. In household systems, these are winding sections of the semi-permeable membrane inside cylindrical canisters. Reverse osmosis membranes need regular cleaning to maintain proper operation.

Who Should Consider a Reverse Osmosis System?

There are two main categories of R/O customers: residential and commercial. The needs of each group are often vastly different, and so are the filtration systems they use. However, anyone who wants the most effective water filtration should consider reverse osmosis.

Residential Customers

Residential customers who rely on well water can often benefit from a household reverse osmosis system. That is because well water is not treated before it enters the home. As a result, it may contain any number of contaminants from the surrounding environment, including heavy metals, lawn and garden chemicals, salts, and other minerals. A high-quality system will remove all of these and allow residents to have safe drinking water.

Commercial Systems

Industrial applications that collect, filter, and reuse wastewater are ideal for reverse osmosis treatment systems. Because reverse osmosis removes more than 95% of contaminants, it is ideally suited to this type of application.

Reverse osmosis water treatment systems are among the best quality water filters you can buy. They remove a large number of contaminants and produce very pure water. They are also adaptable and can be scaled for home or commercial use, depending on your individual needs.