Can I use the Waste Water of Reverse Osmosis System?

Reverse osmosis systems are among the most widely used types of water filtration today because they can remove significant quantities of impurities. But why it generates a lot of effluents is a common topic. Is the wastewater really useless? Assuming you also harbor related questions, then read on.

How does a reverse osmosis system work?

Scientific experiments have shown that if the same volume of a highly concentrated liquid and a less concentrated liquid are placed on either side of a semi-permeable membrane, the less concentrated liquid will naturally flow toward the more concentrated liquid. This process is called osmosis. If we apply a pressure greater than the osmotic pressure on the high concentration side, we can make the high concentration liquid flow to the low concentration liquid, which is called reverse osmosis, also known as osmosis.

When using this technology for water purifiers, the highly concentrated raw water containing impurities are driven through the reverse osmosis membrane under pressure. Because of the extremely fine pore size of the membrane, impurities in the water can be trapped on one side by the reverse osmosis membrane and only water molecules can pass through.

What are the filtration steps of the reverse osmosis system?

It is roughly divided into five steps.

The first filtration step is generally PP cotton, which can remove larger particles of impurities in the water, such as debris, and rust. This is also to protect the reverse osmosis membrane from being clogged by debris. However, some relatively small size of bacteria, viruses, and heavy metals can not be removed in this link.

The second step is activated carbon filtration. Generally, there are two types of activated carbon, granular activated carbon and compressed activated carbon. The use of granular carbon pore structure developed, strong adsorption capacity, can remove the residual chlorine in the water, corrosive substances to remove the water color and odor.

The third filtration step is reverse osmosis membrane filtration. Bacteria, viruses, and other harmful particles that cannot be removed by the initial filtration process will be filtered out after the reverse osmosis membrane. Reverse osmosis membrane filtration precision is only 0.0001 microns, and the smallest virus has 0.02 microns so that after the reverse osmosis membrane can filter out almost all the impurities in the water. After the reverse osmosis membrane water is pressurized past, there is always a part of the water with impurities that can not pass the reverse osmosis membrane, which is often referred to as wastewater.

The fourth stage is generally post-activated carbon filtration, further adsorption of water color, and odor to improve the taste of water and get the water we can drink directly.

The fifth stage of water quality optimization. Because the RO membrane filtered water is pure water and does not contain any minerals, through the fifth stage of the cartridge, you can add to the water beneficial to human health trace elements.

The use of wastewater

From a professional point of view, the reverse osmosis system on the market does not exist at all wastewater, it has only one incoming water (or "raw water") and two outgoing water, respectively "through water" (i.e. pure water, drinking water) and "concentrated Water" (i.e. purified water, water for washing). In other words, the reverse osmosis system is a very good water separation system.

The "wastewater" is also filtered through the first three stages of the cartridge, which has removed a large portion of the impurities. In addition to slightly higher salinity and bacteria than tap water, most other indicators, such as turbidity, color, organic matter, and colloid, are lower than tap water, so the water can never be wastewater. Most of the water (concentrated water) has gone through the first three channels and failed to go through the second stage of treatment, becoming purified water outflow as washing water.

In the family's daily life, wash water happens to be in much greater demand than drinking water, such as brushing pots and pans, washing dishes, wiping tables, washing clothes, mopping floors, and flushing toilets. That's really good.

I hope this article will help you further understand the wastewater from RO machines. Feel free to contact us if you have any questions.