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Reverse Osmosis Water Filtration
Reverse Osmosis for the use within the filtration of water has been in widely available for many years. The original concept for reverse osmosis filtration was for the desalination of seawater, however when the potential for reverse osmosis filtration was recognised as a very effective method for the filtration of a wide variety of water contaminants reverse osmosis systems started to become commercially developed for many more purification uses. Reverse osmosis is now widely regarded as a practical, inexpensive alternative to other more widely implemented water filtration techniques.
Reverse osmosis works by filtration of liquid through a semi-permeable membrane, basically the opposite of a biological osmosis process of water, hence the term (reverse osmosis). Osmosis as a biological process moves water through a weak saline solution to a stronger saline solution, gradually equalising the solution, whenever a semi-permeable membrane layer divides both solutions. When this process is reversed, water is forced to transfer from the stronger saline solution to a weaker solution, once again via a semi-permeable membrane, the membrane is effective at obstructing the passing of particles. The outcome regarding filtration of seawater is desalinated water on one part of the membrane layer and a saline solution on the opposite side. Reverse osmosis can also be utilised as a filtration method for drinking water.
Advantages of Reverse Osmosis filtration
Reverse osmosis is an excellent water purification treatment whenever mineral-free water is the required end product. Most minerals within water i.e iron, manganese, calcium etc are typically larger in physical form than water molecules and as such are held within the membrane and stripped away from the water. Reverse osmosis also has the ability to be able to eliminate many chemical compounds also including fluoride.