How Does A Reverse Osmosis System Work?

Contents

1 Purpose of a Reverse Osmosis System
2 How Does Reverse Osmosis System Work
3 Components of Reverse Osmosis System
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Purpose of a Reverse Osmosis System

The term might sound scientific but the aim and process of reverse osmosis system is very simple. It is not a new concept and has been used for years for desalination of water i.e. converting sea water into drinking water. It must be noted, that though there are number of brands selling these reverse osmosis systems but their way of working is exactly the same. In order to select the best reverse osmosis system there are different criteria that are based on the features required by the customer and the ideal way to gain info about these brands is to read about reverseosmosis system reviewsposted by customers who have actually been using those particular models.

How Does Reverse Osmosis System Work

In simple language, the reverse osmosis system works by passing the tap water through a thick membrane or filter that allows only the water to pass and blocks all the inorganic materials mixed in water like salt from crossing the membrane. This is the simple filtration technique used by all reverse osmosis systems. Now where the results could differ are the factors like incoming water pressure, water temperature, quality and type of membranes used in the system and also the type of materials present in the water.

A typical and basic reverse osmosis system acts and obstructs all particles that are sized .001 microns and more although for every type of particle the size range could differ slightly. The type of water contaminants that generally are fileted by the reverse osmosis systems are Aqueous salts, polio viruses, carbon black, smallest bacteria’s, tobacco smoke, red blood cells, smallest yeast and human hair.

Components of Reverse Osmosis System

Cold water line valve – this is to connect the cold water source to the inlet of the reverse osmosis system to get the incoming water into the system for purification.
Pre-Filter – once the water enters the system, they first get filtered by a number of pre-filters that are generally the sediment filters. These filters remove the sand, stones and other sediments commonly present in the water. Post that they also pass the water through the carbon filters to remove all the chlorine if present in the water.
Reverse osmosis membrane – this is the main membrane of the system that are two separate spiral wounds out of which one is CTA (cellulose tri-acetate) which tolerates chlorine and the other is TFC/TFM (thin film composite/material) which does not tolerate chlorine.
Post filter – once the membrane passes the water, there is a final filtration to remove the remaining taste and odours in the water through a carbon filter.
Automatic shut off valve – to avoid water wastage, there is an automatic valve that shuts the system once the storage tank is full and obstructs the incoming water to enter the RO system.
Check valve – this is present in the outlet of the best reverse osmosis system and its main purpose is to prevent the water from going backwards that could rupture the reverse osmosis membrane and damage it permanently.
Flow restrictor – irrespective of the incoming water flow from the tap, the flow restrictor regulates the flow of water when it reaches the main membrane in order to achieve 100% filtration of the water. This is required because variable water flow could damage the membrane and its functionality.
Storage tank – this tank holds the filtered and pure water and a typical RO system is capable of storing up to 2.5 gallons of water.
Drain line – this is also present at the outlet of the RO used to throw out all the impurities.