|
|
|
|
reverse osmosis (courtesy of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute) A technique used in processes requiring high-quality, purified water, such in semiconductor processing or biochemical applications, is reverse osmosis. It can be used to treat boiler feedwater, industrial wastewater, or process water. Reverse Osmosis is a water purification technique that reduces the quantity of dissolved solids in solution .It was first developed in the 1950's by the US government to provide fresh drinking water for the Navy, and since then, advances have made it much more feasible for obtaining purified water from wastewaters produced in many industrial applications. RO uses waterline pressure to push raw wastewater against a special semipermeable membrane. It is essentially a molecular squeezing process which causes H20 molecules to separate from the contaminants. The separated water molecules then pass thru to the inside of the membrane on to a holding reservoir. The contaminants are washed from the membrane and disposed of. Recently, RO has been used in treating boiler feedwater, in addition to industrial and process wastewaters. Boilers are found throughout the chemical processing industry and the primary method to treat boiler make-up water is an ion-exchange based demineralization. However, RO has been demonstrated to be more cost effective than this demineralization process . Full presentation of reverse osmosis operation (Link to Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute)
|
|
|
home page 
