Consolidated Water Conditioning Sa (Pty) Ltd

all water contains total dissolved solids (tds). Tds is the measurement by weight of the dissolved materials in a given volume of water. If a material will completely dissolve and is not visible in the water, it is part of the tds of the water. reverse osmosis helps to lower the tds content of water, by passing it through a semi-permeable membrane with a pore size of less than 0. 0005 microns in diameter. The purified (permeate) water produced by a reverse osmosis system is amongst the purest form of treated water available. reverse osmosis can be effectively used for the reduction of total dissolved solids in groundwater, surface water and sea water applications. reverse osmosis is a membrane process that acts as a molecular filter to remove over 99% of all dissolved minerals. Water passes through the membrane while the dissolved and particulate matter is left behind. as pressure is applied to the concentrated solution, the flow is reversed and water is passed through the membrane from the concentrated side to the dilute side. water molecules penetrate the thin layer of the membrane and diffuse through it molecule by molecule. Dissolved salt ions would also diffuse through this layer, except that the solubility of the salt ions in the feed is much less than that of the water. This results in water passing through the membrane more rapidly than salts, causing separation. the driving force of the reverse osmosis process is driven by both the feed water pressure and the concentration differentials across the membrane surface. For water, the pressure effect is the most important, and for the dissolved ions in the water, the concentration difference is the most important. Therefore, increases in pressure increase the amount of treated water without causing a corresponding increase in waste flow.