Reverse Osmosis, or RO, is an effective and proven technology to produce ultra-pure water that is suitable for many industrial applications that require demineralized or deionized water. Water treatment by this technology’s main aim is to eject the maximum percentage of ions from raw water, giving as much treated water flow as possible.

Untreated process water can lead to scaling and fouling, disrupting industrial processes and adding to the cost of operations. Proper industrial process water treatment can be used to reduce the presence of the minerals responsible for scaling and fouling, as well as unwanted: oils, grease, colors, odors, bacteria, turbidity, acidity, and organic compounds

Used in the production and treatment of potable, ultrapure, and process water for municipal, agricultural, and industrial applications. There are many applications for water purification, including recycling wastewater, reducing chemical consumption, and reducing boiler blowdown. Significant amounts of water can be recycled and used again in the manufacturing process after undergoing a water purification process.

Applications

Drinking Water Production
Manure Processing
Wastewater
Digestate
Off-shore
Maritime

What is a RO Plant?

In an RO system, pressure (usually from a pump) is used to overcome natural osmotic pressure, forcing feed water with its load of dissolved salts and other impurities through a highly sophisticated semipermeable membrane that removes a high percentage of the impurities. The product of this process is highly purified water. The commercial RO system is cost-effective and capable of removing particulates down to .0001 microns.

Reverse osmosis is used to produce highly purified water for drinking water systems, industrial boilers, food and beverage processing, cosmetics, pharmaceutical production, seawater desalination, and many other applications.

How does Reverse Osmosis (RO) work?

The RO system is the process of Osmosis in reverse. Whereas Osmosis occurs naturally without energy required, to reverse the process of osmosis you need to apply energy to the more saline solution.

A reverse osmosis membrane is a semi-permeable membrane that allows the passage of water molecules but not the majority of dissolved salts, organics, bacteria, and pyrogens. However, you need to ‘push’ the water through the reverse osmosis membrane by applying pressure that is greater than the naturally occurring osmotic pressure in order to desalinate (demineralize or deionize) water in the process, allowing pure water through while holding back a majority of contaminants.

The RO system works by using a high-pressure pump to increase the pressure on the salt side of the RO and force the water across the semi-permeable RO membrane, leaving almost all of the dissolved salts behind in the reject stream. An RO system uses cross-filtration, where the solution crosses the filter with two outlets: the filtered water goes one way and the contaminated water goes another way.

Design of RO Systems

RO Plants work on the Crossflow Filtration method, which takes the feed water and uses a percentage of it as a wash or reject stream, removing the solids during the filtration process. Designing an RO system requires a thorough understanding of a plant’s water supply and the technology’s capabilities.

Reverse osmosis membrane manufacturers offer software to assist in the design of RO systems. Using this tool, the design engineer enters the raw feed water data, calculates the scaling potential, evaluates various design configurations, and projects the final permeated water quality. A full mineral and chemical water analysis is required in preparing an RO design.

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Reverse Osmosis System

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