Reverse Osmosis Water Treatment

What is Reverse Osmosis?

Reverse osmosis (RO) is a water treatment process that removes impurities using a semi-permeable membrane. Simple, safe and cost-effective, it eradicates over 99% of contaminants from water such as dissolved solids, organics, bacteria and pyrogens.

How does Reverse Osmosis work?

Osmosis is the natural process by which a solvent (like water) moves across a semi-permeable membrane from an area of high to low concentration. RO water treatment reverses this process so the solvent flows in the opposite direction, resulting in highly purified water.

In RO systems, a pump creates pressure which forces the feed water through the semi-permeable membrane against its natural flow. The water molecules pass into a purified water tank, while contaminants are held back and discharged through a reject stream. The reject stream can be either safely disposed of or recycled in other processes.

What are RO water treatment systems used for?

RO water systems can be used in a variety of industries such as pharmaceutical, healthcare, food & beverage and seawater desalinisation. Applications include decontamination, renal dialysis, wastewater recovery and process water production. RO works well in conjunction with other purification processes such as continuous electro-deionisation (CEDI) or ultrafiltration.

What are the benefits of RO water treatment systems?

RO water treatment is an established technology that offers many advantages over other purification processes. These include:

1. Lower operating costs and better energy efficiency due to ambient temperatures

2. Improved safety as no hazardous chemicals to transport, store and handle

3. Compact footprint which takes up less valuable space

4. No regeneration downtime as system continuously in operation

5. Treatment of any type of feed water

6. Integration with other water treatment systems

7. Simple to operate and maintain (e.g. integrated PLC control system, self-cleaning)