Application Bulletin: Reverse Osmosis

Osmosis is the phenomenon of lower dissolved solids in water passing through a semi-permeable membrane into higher dissolved solids water until a near equilibrium is reached. Reverse osmosis (RO) is a membrane process of purification which removes most of the total dissolved solids (TDS) in water by reversing the natural process of osmosis. Pressure is applied to a TDS-concentrated solution against a semi-permeable membrane, causing pure water to diffuse through the membrane. RO has become an important process for a wide variety of applications including: medical, laboratory, desalination, industrial wastewater, Deionized (Dl) pretreatment, and drinking water.