REVERSE OSMOSIS

A Typical reverse osmosis installation requires your incoming water feed to be initially filtered through a range of pre-filters prior to the water passing onto your RO unit.

The purpose of this is initial filtration stage (which is referred to as pre-treatment) includes some of these key benefits :

• Pretreatment can remove known contaminants from your water supply such as Chlorine which is known to damage reverse osmosis membrane(s).
• Pretreatment delivers a consistent feed to your reverse osmosis filtration unit ensuring stable and accurate water quality.
• Pretreatment extends the overall efficiency of your treatment plant and maximises its operational lifecycle.

Once through the pretreatment stage your incoming water feed next passes onto the reverse osmosis stage. A correctly installed and configured Reverse Osmosis water filter is capable of rejecting a whole host of contaminants including :

• Sodium
• Sulphate
• Calcium
• Potassium
• Nitrate
• Iron
• Zinc
• Mercury
• Phosphate
• Lead
• Magnesium
• Nickel
• Fluoride
• Chloride
• Manganese
• Cyanide
• Arsenic
• Aluminium
• Copper and many more.

The rejected water (referred to as concentrate) can then either be sent direct to drain or partially recycled back through the reverse osmosis filter in order to reduce waste.

Quite simply reverse osmosis is the process of using pressure to force water through a semi-permeable membrane in order to purify it.

With an industrial Reverse Osmosis system, feed water is pumped at high pressure through either single or multiple reverse osmosis membranes. These membrane(s) are constructed from a single polyester core with an outer spiral wound semi-permeable membrane, it is this membrane which allows microscopic water molecules to pass through, yet reject any larger particulates such as suspended solids, bacteria, chemicals etc.

The rejected water (often referred to as the concentrate) is either passed direct to drain or optionally reused or recycled. Water which has passed through the membrane (often referred to as the permeate) is either used directly, placed in a holding tank to be used when required or passed onto another stage for additional treatment, referred to as polishing. 

A correctly configured reverse osmosis water filter is capable of removing over 99% of impurities from the feed water.

This varies on the size of the ro unit. IWE strives to use the latest advancements in membrane technology in order to ensure that waste water is kept to a minimum at all times.

For domestic RO systems there can be as much as 50% rejected water which will go to drain.

2L incoming = 1L waste & 1L of treated RO water*

Commercial and Industrial RO systems have far less rejection, typically our reverse osmosis water filters operate at around 80% recovery, meaning a 20% rejection rate.

2,000L incoming = 400L waste & 1,600L of treated RO water*

*example figures

Ongoing costs are minimal. Typical costs include replacement filters or either a membrane clean or membrane replacement when the membranes begin to fail.

Unfortunately, this is a tricky question to answer due to the many incoming factors which could affect the membrane such as the incoming water quality (temperature, pressure, contaminants present), volume being used and how often the system is being used for.

Typically if the pre-treatment is correctly designed a membrane will have a life of 2 years.*

*average life, can vary.

We supply domestic systems through to bespoke reverse osmosis units up to 50m3/hr of treated water.

If you have a specific requirement we are able to cater for any sized system.

We are proud that our reverse osmosis water filters are designed and produced in the UK and are vigorously tested and quality checked before leaving our factory. We take pride in our units and only use the highest quality components.

At IWE we are always striving to be ahead of the industry and are always up to date with technological advancements in the water treatment industry. Product development is something that we take very seriously.

We have an experienced team of engineers across the whole of the UK and Ireland who are trained to install, commission and service all reverse osmosis systems. Whether it’s a reverse osmosis water filter supplied by us or from another supplier our team have years of experience and are the most proficient engineers in our industry.

We have supplied to some very large and established companies across the world. Typical industries that we supply to include :

• Food and beverage production
• Breweries
• Distilleries
• Agricultural production
• Car manufacturers
• Car washes
• Beauty products
• Boiler and cooling tower production
• Chemical production
• Data centres