Reverse Osmosis occurs when pressure stronger than the osmotic pressure is applied to a saline water solution passing through a semipermeable membrane and a flow of water going to the pure water side is observed. The membrane allows the passage of the water but not of salts. By this simple process, high quality water can be extracted from a saline water solution. RO is efficient for low or high concentrations of salts and can thus be used to treat brackish water as well as seawater. Sea water must be pre-treated to avoid fouling and scaling that damages membranes.
Operation of RO technology requires no additional chemicals, although use of antiscalant is suitable in order to prevent concentrated salts prom excess precipitation on the membrane surface. In comparison of ionex technology, reverse osmosis doesn’t generate an additional salts during operation. Reverse osmosis only concentrates the salts which are contained in an inlet water. Mass balance of salinity is neutral.
Purity of RO permeate is high enough for use in power industry, chemical industry and other types of industry where there is demand for demineralized water for multiple purposes.
Use:
- Offshore Platform
- Petrochemical Complexes
- Power Plants
- Chemical Plants
- Oil Refineries
- Methanol Plants
Benefits:
- High level quality permeate suitable for wide range of applications
- Fully automatized continuous operation
- Small footprint
- Very low chemical consumption
