Osmosis and Desalination. Include every step of the process.
REVERSE OSMAIS AND DESALINATION
A reverse osmosis system consists of four major components/processes:
PRETREATMENT: The incoming feed water is pretreated to be
compatible with the membranes by removing suspended solids, adjusting the pH, and adding a threshold inhibitor to control scaling caused by constituents such as calcium sulphate.
PRESSURIZATION: The pump raises the pressure of the
pretreated feed water to an operating pressure appropriate for the membrane and the salinity of the feed water
SEPARATION: The permeable membranes inhibit the passage
of dissolved salts while permitting the desalinated product water to pass through. Applying feed water to the membrane assembly results in a fresh water product stream and a concentrated brine reject stream. Because no membrane is perfect in its rejection of dissolved salts, a small percentage of salts passes through the membrane and remains in the product water. Reverse osmosis membranes come in variety of configurations.
STABILIZATION: The product water from the membrane
assembly usually requires pH adjustment and degasification before being transferred to the distribution system for use as drinking water.
In reverse osmosis desalination, water is taken from the sea
and receives the first treatment to eliminate impurities, oil ,seaweed, rubbish and so on. One free of organic substances, the saltwater can be subjected to reverse osmosis. After the filtering, we have to streams; one brine and the other fresh water.
2. Do you think that these methods are feasible in the
Philippines? Why? Why not?
No, they, cannot make it where the majority of our
people are having problems paying their monthly bills and the cost of living here. We are not at that stage yet that we can afford to pay for desalination . it is very expensive We have already computed it. The cost right now, for example, the selling price of water is around PHP40, the cost of treating it for desalination is already around PHP90 . so its more than double. So I don’t think if we can do that.