Reverse osmosis filtration removes a variety of contaminants in your water so that you can have truly clean drinking water.

The water that comes out of our kitchen faucets may not be as clean as we would hope. If you have filtration in your home, chances are that your drinking water still contains unwanted particles. To ensure that the water you and your family drink is pure, great-tasting, and clean, look into reverse osmosis water filtration.

What Is Reverse Osmosis?

Reverse osmosis (RO) uses a membrane in a filtration process to separate ions, particulates, and molecules from a solution (like water). (1)

What Is the History of RO?

Scientists have known about reverse osmosis for over a century. However, reverse osmosis wasn’t used commercially until the 1950s. (1, 2) The first use of reverse osmosis outside of a science lab was at the University of California in Los Angeles when reverse osmosis was used to desalinate sea water. (1)

In the beginning of the 21st century, manufacturing plants began to use reverse osmosis commercially. Before this point, using reverse osmosis was so slow that it wasn’t practical for commercial use. (1) Now that modifications have been made to speed up the process, reverse osmosis has a variety of uses, such as (2):

• Making processed water for dialysis in hospitals
• Mineral reclamation
• Producing cosmetics
• Producing pharmaceutical drugs
• Purifying water
• Treating wastewater

How Does RO Work?

To help us understand how reverse osmosis works, let’s take a look at what osmosis is. Osmosis is the process in which molecules move across a semipermeable membrane from an area of higher concentration to an area of lower concentration. Moving through the membrane sifts out molecules. Thus water is allowed to pass through but not larger molecules. (1)

As the name suggests, reverse osmosis works in the opposite way. Instead of moving water from a high concentration to a lower one, reverse osmosis moves water from a lower concentration to a higher one. (1) Since RO moves water against the natural flow of higher to lower concentration, it requires pressure to move water through the membrane. (3)

Many reverse osmosis filtration systems have other filtration processes before the water is passed through the membrane. Often, the water is pretreated by filtering through a sand bed, an activated charcoal filter, a chlorinator tank, a degasifier, a deionizer, or a microfilter.

What Does RO Filtration Remove?

RO membranes can filter a variety of contaminants from your drinking water, including most organic substances, like (1, 2):

• Oils
• Bacteria
• Viruses
• Metal

RO membranes can also remove up to 99% of radionuclides like uranium and radium, as well as other harmful contaminants like nitrate and arsenic. (3)

As previously mentioned, most reverse osmosis filtration systems use additional filters to purify the water even further. Depending on what RO system you use, there may be a sediment filter that removes rust, dirt, or dust; a carbon filter that reduces the amount of volatile organic compounds and chlorine in the water; or a membrane that removes up to 98% of total dissolved solids (TDS). (4)

The FDA states that reverse osmosis filtration systems are capable of producing water that is pure enough to be used as Water for Injection (water used to manufacture injectable drugs that require a water solvent) and to prepare parenteral solutions (sterile pharmaceutical injections). (2) That’s incredibly pure!

In Conclusion

If the drinking water in your home is not as clean as you would like, a reverse osmosis filtration system may be just what you’ve been looking for. Ensure that your home’s water is pure, clean, and great-tasting with reverse osmosis water.