If you want clean and purified water for you and your family, then you can achieve that through the process called reverse osmosis. You may not be aware of it but the tap water you and your family drink may be filled with chemicals, bacteria and other impurities. And if you are not able to find a way to filter them, they may bring dangerous effects to your health.
You, yourself, may not be completely aware of where your water supply is actually coming from. And although there are Reverse Osmosis Water Filtration plants, such as the ones in the Gascoyne region which are specifically tasked to eliminate contaminants, there are still places that they cannot completely make your drinking water safe.
There are a couple of water filtration systems available in the market today. But how do you know which of them will actually deliver the results you want? Here are some of the things you would need to look into to determine if the water filter you will buy is safe and effective. Reverse Osmosis is still one of the few techniques considered to capture a majority of those contaminants.
Reverse Osmosis Removes Most Contaminants
For one, it should be able to remove all the traces of chemicals and bacteria in your drinking water. Even the smallest can provide so much harm to your body consumes them at certain levels. On the other hand, it should be able to keep the important trace minerals and nutrients in water at the same time. So this basically means that it should make your drinking water as close to its natural quality as possible. And lastly, it should be environment-friendly. There are plenty of reverse osmosis products that actually waste a lot of water, which should be taken into consideration when thinking about a purchase of any reverse osmosis product.
So how exactly does the idea of reverse osmosis work?
Basically, reverse osmosis is a filtration process wherein various molecules and ions are eliminated from the water by making it pass through a semi-permeable membrane. This semi-permeable membrane is a form of membrane will let some atoms and molecules pass but will not allow others.
Pressure is then exerted on the untreated water for its molecules to pass through the membrane onto the fresh water side of the reverse osmosis filters. This is because clean water is made up of small molecules which can easily pass through the small holes of the membrane. On the other hand, larger particles like chemicals and bacteria are not able to pass to pass through the membrane, therefore making reverse osmosis effective.
Thus, by the end of the process, clean and untreated water are on either sides of the membrane. You may not be aware of it, but this process is actually often employed in the water filtration needs of both commercial and residential units. There are also times when this filtration process is used for the purification of liquids wherein water becomes an undesirable element or impurity. One of which is ethanol.
Reverse Osmosis Stages
There are around five major stages that your untreated tap water goes through in the reverse osmosis process. First stage is called the pre-filter stage which removes sediments, suspended rust and sand, then the next process is pre-filter, granular activated carbon. Then on the third part, a second GAC or a form of activated carbon block is used. On the fourth stage, water is passed through an osmotic membrane. Finally, post filter and de-ionization are the last parts of reverse osmosis.