What is the inverse osmosis?
The number of people who still buy bottled water for home use never ceases to amaze me. Come on people, it’s time to educate yourself here. You’re wasting time and energy, landfill space, and, yes, money… a lot.
Have you ever heard of reverse osmosis? Did you know that most bottled water manufacturers use reverse osmosis as a means of purifying the bottled water you drink? It is a fact that many people are completely unaware of.
Soon, all You will know the benefits of reverse osmosis. Reverse osmosis equipment has only been manufactured for the home consumer for a few years. Until recently, it was primarily used by major corporations and the US government to purify non-potable water supplies around the world. It was, and still is, used on large military and commercial ships to purify seawater, making it fit for human consumption.
Reverse osmosis (RO) is often described as filtration, but it is much more complex than that. People sometimes explain it as a filter because it’s so much easier to visualize using those terms. For example, the phenomenon of osmosis is how our blood feeds every cell in our body. As our blood is transported to the tiniest of capillaries in our body, nutrients actually pass through the cell wall to sustain its life.
For example: if you take a jar of water and put a semi-permeable membrane in it, which by its construction mimics a cell wall, divide the jar into two sections and put water on both sides of the membrane at the same level. , no problem. But, if you put salt (or another similar dissolved substance) on one side of the jar, you’ll soon notice that the water level on the salty side starts to rise higher as the unsalted side goes down. This is the natural osmotic pressure at work. The two solutions will still try to reach the same salt level or equilibrium on each side of the membrane by unsalted water passing through the membrane to dilute the salty water. This will continue until the “head” pressure of the salt water exceeds the “osmotic” pressure created by the differences in the two solutions.
Many years ago, researchers discovered a means to reverse or exploit this natural osmotic process and use it to purify salty ocean water. They found that if they took that same semi-permeable membrane and pushed salt water into it with a sufficient amount of pressure on one side of the membrane, to overcome the natural osmotic pressure on the other side, they could actually “make” clean water. on the side of the membrane that has no applied pressure!
Depending on the design of the membranes and the material from which they are made, the amount of TDS (salt or total dissolved solids), the reduction will range from 80 to more than 99 percent. Different minerals have different rejection rates, for example, the removal rate of a typical TFC (Thin Film Composite) membrane is 99.5% for barium and radium 226/228; but only 85.9% for Fluoride and 94.0% for Mercury. Contamination removal rates are also dependent on proper feedwater pressures.
Is it safe to drink reverse osmosis water?
Reverse osmosis water is perfectly safe to drink. There is also a scientific explanation as to why this type of purified water is actually better for you than water that contains a high mineral content (TDS). Water with a high TDS count of more than 50 ppm actually becomes electrically charged and can conduct very small amounts of electrical current. High TDS water, under the right circumstances, can cause a small electric light bulb to light up! High TDS water is typically a solution that lacks hydrogen molecules. This type of water often causes dehydration at the cellular level. Low TDS reverse osmosis water, on the other hand, has a much lower ability to conduct electrical charges. Reverse osmosis water is typically slightly acidic and loaded with positively charged hydrogen (H+) molecules. This type of water has been scientifically proven to provide superior hydration at the cellular level.
Which is the Difference between conventional water filtration and reverse osmosis?
A conventional filtration system, such as a refrigerator for example, will give you good tasting water, but will not remove total dissolved solids, such as SODIUM, MANGANESE, CALCIUM CARBONATE, to name a few, which are present in most municipal tap water and well. Residential reverse osmosis systems typically incorporate a combination of conventional filtration to remove sediment and other solids, followed by activated carbon adsorption to remove organics, chlorine, pesticides, and VOCs, before the reverse osmosis membrane. The end result is as close to distilled water quality as possible, with virtually no energy consumption. Typical household water line pressure of 40 psi is all the power required to run the RO system.
The technology side
As with many new technologies, when reverse osmosis systems first became available to the public sector, they were used almost exclusively in commercial settings and beyond the justifiable financial reach of the average home consumer. The membranes were very inefficient and wasted a lot of water. Technology has progressed in recent times to the point of becoming an affordable, more efficient and readily available alternative for the average consumer. A typical residential reverse osmosis system has a 30-35% recovery rate. What this means is that for every gallon of water fed to the RO system, approximately 1/3 of a gallon of purified water will be produced and 2/3 of it will be wastewater. Most residential facilities simply dump the wastewater down the drain. The very nature of the reverse osmosis process causes some wastage of water. However, if this waste is a major concern, rather than pouring it down the drain, there are numerous ways to use wastewater, limited only by one’s ability to be resourceful.
US EPA Recognized Reverse Osmosis
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has recently released data indicating that one in five Americans, served by a quarter of the nation’s drinking water systems, consumes tap water that violates EPA safety standards under the Clean Water Act. With this in mind, it’s safe to assume that no matter where you live in the United States, at any given time, there is likely to be some toxic substance in your tap water.
It’s no wonder why so many people buy bottled water, but isn’t it…read on, you’ll be surprised. The US EPA has stated that many dangerous contaminants may exist in our public water supplies, as well as in bottled water. One of those contaminants is called a “cyst” and yes, they are as disgusting as they sound! Cysts are tiny microscopic organisms that can cause dangerous health problems even for healthy people, let alone people with weakened immune systems. The trick here is that you don’t have to drink the water that contains these organisms to get sick. The cysts can be ingested in a number of ways, including simply brushing your teeth. They are more common than you think; The elusive cyst has been found in many public water supplies in recent years and yes, some bottled waters have even been found to contain cysts!
Reverse osmosis is recognized by the EPA as an effective means of removing cysts. The US EPA has even recommended the use of point-of-use reverse osmosis for the removal of certain contaminants, such as cysts found in many water supplies, public and otherwise. Additionally, reverse osmosis, compared to conventional filtration, has been scientifically proven to be one of the most effective means of removing the broadest spectrum of all other contaminants from water.
Chances are your neighbor or someone you know already has a residential reverse osmosis drinking water system installed in their home. It is becoming a popular option for many educated consumers to have a reliable source of pure water close at hand. After using the RO system for a while, most people wonder how they ever managed without it.