What is reverse osmosis (RO)?
Reverse osmosis, often referred to as RO, is an advanced water purification method. It is a membrane filtration technology that works by forcing water under pressure through the very tiny pores of a semi-permeable membrane.
Water and wastewater purification
In industry, reverse osmosis removes minerals from boiler water at power plants. The water is distilled multiple times. It must be as pure as possible so it does not leave deposits on the machinery or cause corrosion. The deposits inside or outside the boiler tubes may result in under-performance of the boiler, reducing its efficiency and resulting in poor steam production, hence poor power production at the turbine.
It is also used to clean effluent and brackish groundwater. The effluent in larger volumes (more than 500 m3/day) should be treated in an effluent treatment plant first, and then the clear effluent is subjected to reverse osmosis system. Treatment cost is reduced significantly and membrane life of the reverse osmosis system is increased. The process of reverse osmosis can be used for the production of deionized water.
Reverse osmosis process for water purification does not require thermal energy. Flow-through reverse osmosis systems can be regulated by ro high pressure pumps. The recovery of purified water depends upon various factors, including membrane sizes, membrane pore size, temperature, operating pressure, and membrane surface area.
Landfill leachate purification
Treatment with reverse osmosis is limited, resulting in low recoveries on high concentration (measured with electrical conductivity) and fouling of the RO membranes. Reverse osmosis applicability is limited by conductivity, organics, and scaling inorganic elements such as CaSO4, Si, Fe and Ba. Low organic scaling can use two different technologies, one is using spiral wound membrane type of module, and for high organic scaling, high conductivity and higher pressure (up to 90 bars) disc tube modules with reverse-osmosis membranes can be used. Disc tube modules were redesigned for landfill leachate purification, that is usually contaminated with high levels of organic material. Due to the cross-flow with high velocity it is given a flow booster pump, that is recirculating the flow over the same membrane surface between 1.5 and 3 times before it is released as a concentrate. High velocity is also good against membrane scaling and allows successful membrane cleaning.
Desalination
Areas that have either no or limited surface water or groundwater may choose to desalinate. Reverse osmosis is an increasingly common method of desalination, because of its relatively low energy consumption.
Sea-water reverse-osmosis (SWRO) desalination, a membrane process, has been commercially used since the early 1970s. Because no heating or phase changes are needed, energy requirements are low, around 3 kWh/m3, in comparison to other processes of desalination, but are still much higher than those required for other forms of water supply, including reverse osmosis treatment of wastewater, at 0.1 to 1 kWh/m3. Up to 50% of the seawater input can be recovered as fresh water, though lower recoveries may reduce membrane fouling and energy consumption.
Brackish water reverse osmosis refers to desalination of water with a lower salt content than sea water, usually from river estuaries or saline wells. The process is substantially the same as sea water reverse osmosis, but requires lower pressures and therefore less energy. Up to 80% of the feed water input can be recovered as fresh water, depending on feed salinity.
The typical single-pass sea water reverse osmosis system consists of:
Intake
Pretreatment
High pressure pump (if not combined with energy recovery)
Membrane assembly
Energy recovery (if used)
Remineralisation and pH adjustment
Disinfection
Alarm/control panel
Other Reverse Osmosis Frequently Asked Questions:
1. What industries use reverse osmosis?
2. Which pumps are used for high pressure?
3. What is a high-pressure pump?
