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Did
you know?
Reverse osmosis is the finest water filtration method known. This process will
allow the removal of particles as small as ions from a solution. It is used
to purify water and remove salts and other impurities in order to improve the
color, taste or properties of the fluid. R.O. uses a membrane that is semi-permeable,
allowing the fluid that is being purified to pass through it, while rejecting
other ions and contaminants from passing.
This technology uses a process
known as crossflow to allow the r.o. membrane to continually clean itself. This
is the reason of why an r.o. element can last many years before clogging or
need replacement. This
water purification process requires a driving force to push the fluid through
the membrane, and the most common force is household water pressure or pressure
from a booster pump. The higher the pressure, the larger the driving force and
efficiency.
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Water Treatment
in General Terms-
Water and Water Quality
Water
... what a wonder! People use it in so many ways, it is perhaps unrealistic
to expect it to meet all the demands they make of it. Still, with the
right treatment, water can and does meet all its obligations.
Public health authorities,
industrial firms, commercial firms, hospitals and institutions, farmers
and homemakers ... each has special requirements in terms of water quality.
And when water quality fails to meet these requirements, trouble begins.
Even
the space age scientist gets into the act when he calls for deionized
water to clean the metal skins of his satellites. His request for deionized
water stems from the fact that it prevents local "hot spot"
corrosion and thus unwanted residue weight as his ships soar out into
space. More mundane uses are for final rinsing of automobiles, trucks
and aircraft.
Deionization
is also called demineralization, but not with complete accuracy, since
the term deionization specifies the removal of dissolved substances in
ionic form. Water treatment processes, such as distillation and reverse
osmosis, also remove dissolved substances (dissolved solids) from water.
These processes have the advantage of being able to remove not only dissolved
substances in ionic form from water, but also substances such as sugar
and other organic matter which dissolve in water but do not form ions.
Thus, water may contain dissolved impurities or contaminants which are
ionized and those which are not. Dissolved substances which form ions
make water a better electrolyte (conductor of electricity) and the amount
of ionized substances present in water can be measured by its conductivity,
and conversely, their absence by increased resistance.
Deionization,
distillation and reverse osmosis are processes which cause direct removal
of impurities from water as contrasted with indirect processes which
involve conversion of water impurities to their insoluble form as precipitates,
with subsequent direct removal by filtration, such as the removal of dissolved
iron by oxidation and subsequent filtration.
To
provide the right water for any demand, whether it be that of the public
health authority, the homemaker or the space age scientist, two all-important
factors must be considered:
1.
Precisely what does analysis of the raw water supply indicate?
2. To what
end use will the water be put?
Analysis
of a water may show that it contains (a) dissolved minerals, (b) dissolved
gases, (c) turbidity and sediment, (d) color and organic matter, (e) taste
and odor, and/or (f) micro-organisms.
Whether
or not any of these impurities are harmful in a given situation in turn
depends on:
1. the nature
and the amount of the impurities;
2. the tolerance
permissible for each of these impurities; and
3.
the end use of the water.
Water
of a quality that may prove unacceptable or unsatisfactory for certain
requirements may be quite satisfactory in other instances. To cite an
example, water with 15 grains per gallon of hardness (257 milligrams/liter)
is objectionable for laundering and bathing. This same water, however,
is satisfactory for sprinkling the lawn.
Both the quality
of a raw water and its end use must always be determined before it can
be treated economically.
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