subject: Reverse Osmosis System - Advantages & Disadvantages [print this page] There are plenty of water filtration systems available today in the market. Reverse osmosis is one of the very effective water filtration techniques which are widely used. It is also known as hyper filtration.
The reverse osmosis the name itself gives idea how the system works. It works exactly opposite of the process of osmosis where the impurities in the solution move from low concentration to high concentration through a membrane with no pressure applied. Reverse osmosis works by using pressure to push liquid through a membrane. This is the "reverse" in reverse osmosis, as the pressure is needed to reverse the natural process of osmosis. The end product of the process is the very pure water for drinking. This process is widely used by the industrial purpose also as it gives pure water at little or no coast and highly reliable for the use of various industrial processes.
Advantages:
Little or no waste of water compare to the distillation process.
The system does not consume very high energy and so cost and energy saving.
Completely removes rust and other microscopic fragments.
Filter out the harmful minerals like manganese, lead, iron and other harmful salts.
Even bacteria removed effectively by the system.
More advantageous for commercial applications.
Disadvantages:
It also removes some useful minerals with the removal of harmful substances.
Acidity of the water is higher so sometime can be harmful for health.
Sometime you can feel water tasteless if you are not use to with highly purified water.
It requires high amount water than other systems. Wastage of water is bit high.
The process is slow compare to other water treatment alternatives.
Although all these facts, with advancement in the technology there are lot of enhancement done in the reverse osmosis systems to minimize its disadvantages. It is now considered as one of the best for the home water filtration. Water analysis should be done before owing it for the residential purpose. As the water quality vary from place to place the system require for the filtration of water is also vary. Ideally, the water analysis and assessment should be done by the authorized person.
