How much water is discharged as waste by commercial RO filters? Can’t it be optimized?

Reverse osmosis (RO) is a widely popular technique for purifying drinking water of impurities. It is used for water filtering in both home and business settings. The benefits of RO systems include the removal of pollutants, extremely high water quality, ease of maintenance, and cost savings over purchasing bottled water.

Reverse osmosis has several advantages, but it can also be disadvantageous. It may be seen as a wasteful and ineffective filtration procedure from one angle. Demineralized water consumption carries additional health hazards since it depletes the water of its minerals. Another possible issue is that it is less environmentally friendly than the majority of other filtering technologies since it requires an energy input (electricity) to function.

Let’s learn about the bad side of RO plant which is water wastage, how much water is discharged as waste by commercial RO filters? Also, we will see if it can be optimized. So, let’s begin…

What is "waste water" from reverse osmosis?

More water is used in a conventional reverse osmosis filtering system than is produced as RO water. Many more gallons of water are flushed down the drain as reverse osmosis waste water in order to create one gallon of filtered water. Simply said, this is a fact of the purifying procedure.

A membrane is subjected to cross-flow filtration during the reverse osmosis process. The waste stream, which is also known as concentration stream, RO reject water, or brine and contains all the pollutants and dissolved inorganics, is flushed down the drain while the clean water, also known as permeate stream or product water, is transferred to the water storage tank.

The membrane recovery ratio_ idea picturing the amount of water-wastage.

How much water is "recovered" as RO water is determined by the membrane recovery ratio. It affects the quantity of water a RO system uses. Less drain water is produced the greater the recovery ratio. High recovery rates can cause early membrane fouling and membrane scaling, hence certain RO designs cannot manage them. If the maker claims a very high recovery rate, keep this in mind.

Even if a manufacturer claims a reverse osmosis membrane has a 95% recovery rate, the majority of home RO systems really have a recovery rate of 10–25%. If the entering water is nearly ideal, the recovery rate is what would be recovered. Let's face it: if everyone had flawless incoming feed water, we probably wouldn't need reverse osmosis at all. But very few people, if any, do.

Due to the possibility that their ratios might be excessive and drive away consumers, several RO manufacturers choose not to publicly reveal them. Before buying a system, make sure to inquire about the waste water ratio if the manufacturer doesn't mention it. Although there are many variables, that affect the production ratio, a manufacturer should be able to give a reliable estimate of the waste water ratio.

All this gives us a clear idea about the water drained as wastewater by a commercial RO plant. The difference in water wastage is in the same ratio as the way a commercial RO plant differs from a domestic one or any other in treating water. If we talk about optimizing the water wastage, we can only reuse the drained water. By collecting the water in dedicated tanks or containers and then using the same water for other purposes other than drinking will fix all the issues once for all.

What are reverse osmosis systems with zero waste? Do they do not have any wastage?

Reverse osmosis utilises a lot of water, which is why it's crucial to note that there are more environmentally friendly alternatives available. The term "zero waste" could imply a distinct kind of purification where no waste water is produced at all, however that isn't exactly accurate. Zero waste RO systems use the same purification technique and deliver water of the same calibre (ultrapure water). Although they produce waste water, it is sent to be utilised in your house instead of being flushed down the drain. They are referred to as "zero waste" since the spent water is recycled, making them theoretically 100% efficient.

Conclusion:

Many people think that RO technology wastes more water than is necessary for filtering since three times as much water is wasted or thrown away as is cleansed. Therefore, it may take up to 2.5 glasses of water to cleanse 1 glass of water.

In all of our water purifier models, Netsol water solution’s purifiers has always aimed to reduce this water wastage. We are working to further decrease this waste.

For any kind of support regarding water or wastewater treatment facilities, contact us at +91-9650608473 or enquiry@netsolwater.com