Reverse osmosis, what is it? And do we need it?

Osmosis is the process of separating elements in something. Many home filtration systems use the reverse osmosis technique to clean water by using a carbon filter to trap many known contaminants and such a system goes through 2 or more stages before you can drink the water. In the process of osmosis an ultra violet light is used to kill off any microbes in the water instead of adding chemicals to it. This is common for those who travel to places where the water may not be properly filtered due to pollution or is below sanitation standards. People who live in rural communities will use osmosis filtering when drinking river and ocean water since there are a lot of contaminants in the water. In European countries osmosis or filtering of any kind is prohibited due to laws that protect water sources over there. In cities like Los Angeles and Phoenix they collect rainwater from the storm drains and run it through an osmosis process and use it for landscaping irrigation or farming in dealing with the water shortage.

    Countries like Singapore where contaminated water is a way of life especially many Southeastern Asian countries where the quality of the water is not exactly that great due to the fact that in extremely poor areas running water is not a huge luxury and only available to those who can afford to have running water. Some places can desperately use it since they can’t afford to drink water that’s containing a lot of bacteria in it from contaminants. It’s also a cost effective process for the food processing industry especially in companies that make fruit juices and it’s also used in the wine industry which is kind of a lower end form of pasteurization except they don’t cook the wine or juice concentration to remove the acidic levels and if it’s juice the alcohol content.  Many car wash facilities use reverse osmosis to cut down on the streaking and spotting it leaves on cars during the rinsing and lowers the work on a drying machine which lowers their maintenance costs by a few dollars per vehicle.

     Companies that produce maple syrup also use reverse osmosis to remove water from the sap taken from the tree. This reduces the percentage of water in the sap from 75-80% lowering energy consumption and exposing the sap to higher temperatures and potential microbial contamination as well. Desalination is another form of osmosis especially in areas that consume sea and ocean water so it makes it safe to drink since ocean water is not exactly safe to drink either with the contaminants getting into the water and that ocean water is salty. As far as using reverse osmosis it’s necessary since it’s a practical way to sanitize water without the use of harmful additives and having to take on the expensive task of filtration to remove such things when it’s cheaper to run it through a reverse osmosis process and using UV light to kill off any microbes in the water to make it safe to drink.