What is RO and which water purifier should we use?

In today's time, due to increasing pollution and water-borne diseases, it has become necessary to have a Water Purifier in every house. A water purifier provides us clean and pure water for drinking. In today's modern era, there are many options to purify water. One of these options is RO Water Purifier which is a more advance and most commonly used technology.

The full form of RO is Reverse Osmosis. In today's article, I will tell you what is RO (What is RO in Hindi) and how it works, and all other important information related to it, after reading you will get answers to all questions related to RO in one place. So let's start without any further delay.

What is RO?

The full form of RO is Reverse Osmosis and it is a water purification process. In this technology, RO membranes are used to purify water. RO membrane is a very thin membrane like a cloth in which there are very fine holes. Through this, viruses, bacteria, and germs of very small size present inside the water, which is not possible to see with the naked eye, are filtered out. This membrane also separates the toxic chemicals present in the water.

Contaminants removed from water by RO

Reverse Osmosis is capable of removing 99%+ contaminants. RO membrane separates the contaminants on the basis of their size and charge. However, no RO system can be trusted to remove 100% of bacteria and viruses. Some of the contaminants to be removed by the RO system are as follows:

• Dissolved Salts
• particles
• Colloids
• organics
• bacteria
• viruses

Is RO-purified water safe?

RO purification has both merits and demerits, and the way it is able to prevent negative effects on our health, it is not fair to put it in the category of “more dangerous for us”.

First of all, let's talk about its merits. The membrane used in this is a non-chemical and non-residue leaving a physical process that separates the contaminants from the water. The removal of contaminants depends on the holes in the RO membrane. Because these holes are very small (0.22–0.45 µm) they are able to extract almost everything from water and provide us with highly purified water. This water can also be used for surgical and pharmaceutical purposes.

If we talk about demerits, we can say that RO demineralizes the water to the extent that it remains unfit for drinking. The extraction of minerals from water can cause a deficiency of minerals in our body. This water does not quench thirst. Long-term use can cause some diseases such as decreased bone density, which can make our bones weak. The ph of water also decreases due to which it tastes sour. But in such cases where there is a danger of carcinogenic substances entering the body, RO acts as a protector.

Advantages of RO water purifier

• By killing the harmful bacteria and viruses present in the water, it completely destroys them.
• It converts hard water into soft water.
• RO is very easy to use and maintain.
• RO removes toxic substances present in water such as heavy metals, salts, mercury, Fluoride, Arsenic, chlorine, etc.
• It provides you safe water to drink.

Disadvantages of RO water purifier

Removes Essential Minerals – RO water purifier removes impurities dissolved in water as well as natural minerals present in it such as iron, magnesium, calcium and sodium which are essential for the human body. Due to this, there is a deficiency of essential minerals in the body.

Bacteria and Viruses do not die – RO water purifier does not kill disease-causing bacteria and viruses in water. Here there are more chances of these micro-organisms passing through the RO membrane, which can enter our body along with water (It is advisable to pass RO water through UV water purifier to destroy these micro-organisms).

Taste of water changes – When natural minerals are removed from water, water becomes de-mineralized, due to which the taste of water changes and becomes discolored.

It takes more time to purify – RO water purifier takes more time to purify water.

Water Wastage – Waste water flows more than Filter out water.

Expensive – It is more expensive than other purifiers. UV and RO water purifiers consume more electricity.

Breakdown of RO membrane – There is no such mechanism that can tell when to replace RO membrane. The chlorine present in the water can damage the RO membrane. The small pores of the RO membrane get clogged with chlorine and there is a huge reduction in performance. In such a situation the membrane breaks down and dissolved salts, bacteria, viruses etc. easily cross the RO membrane. That's why it is advised to change RO membrane after every one year.

Osmosis and Reverse Osmosis

Before knowing how Reverse Osmosis (RO) works, it is important to know about Osmosis. Osmosis is a natural phenomenon that means the effect of close contact. In this process, the less saline solution always tries to migrate toward the more saline solution. For example, the absorption of water by the roots of plants from the soil and the absorption of water by our kidneys from the blood is called the osmosis process.

You can understand the osmosis process in the diagram shown below. A solution which is less concentrated will always tend to migrate towards the more concentrated solution.

For example, if you have a container filled with low salt concentrated water and another container filled with high salt concentrated water and they are separated by a semi-permeable membrane, then the water with the lower salt concentration is more Will start migrating towards the container of salt concentration water.

Semi-permeable membrane is a membrane that passes some atoms or molecules and blocks the rest of the molecules. For example, the mesh on the doors, which allows air molecules to pass while preventing anything larger than holes from entering.

Reverse Osmosis is the process that reverses osmosis. Where osmosis being a natural phenomenon does not require any kind of energy, to reverse the process of osmosis, energy needs to be applied to more saline solution.

To filter the water in Reverse Osmosis (RO), pressure is applied on the water from one side and it is passed through the membrane. The holes in the membrane are so small that only water molecules can pass through it. Molecules of germs and bacteria are larger than water molecules which cannot cross the membrane.

An RO membrane is a membrane that allows water molecules to pass through while preventing the passage of salt, bacteria, organics and harmful chemicals contained in the water. However, you will need to apply pressure on the water to push it through the RO membrane. The pressure applied on the water should always be more than the natural osmosis process so that pure water can be passed by holding a large number of contaminants present.

With the help of the diagram shown below, you can understand Reverse Osmosis.

How does RO work?

A high-pressure pump is used in Reverse Osmosis. Through this pump, pressure is applied towards the impure water and the water is passed through the RO membrane. Due to the smallness of the pores of the membrane, the water molecules pass easily while the harmful things like salt (ions), bacteria or viruses contained in the water, whose size is larger than the pores of the membrane, are separated with the reject stream. Are being given.

The pressure applied on impure water depends on the ions present in the water and their concentration. The more concentrated the water, the more pressure is needed to overcome the osmotic pressure.

The stream of water that carries with it those concentrated contaminants that could not pass through the RO membrane is called Reject Stream.

As the feed water enters the RO membrane under pressure, the water molecules pass through this semi-permeable membrane, and salt and other contaminants that cannot pass through the membrane are separated with the reject stream. Is. This reject stream is discharged into the drain or in some circumstances is recycled from the RO system and put back into the feed water supply, taking care of water savings. The water that comes out of the RO membrane is called permeate or product water and usually 95% to 99% of the salts are separated from it.

What is a UV water purifier?

Germs and bacteria are killed by using ultraviolet rays in a UV water purifier. It is the most effective technique to deal with waterborne diseases. This prevents bacteria from spreading diseases in the water. This method is very effective, simple, and eco-friendly.

How does a UV water purifier work?

During the UV water purification procedure, water is passed through a UV radiation source tube. Then UV radiations are poured over the water. UV rays are capable of killing disease-causing germs and bacteria. It directly attacks the DNA of these germs and bacteria and prevents them from reproducing. Thus it provides us with clean and pure potable water.

Advantages of UV water purifier

This is the most effective way to purify water.

No harmful chemicals or products are used in this method of purifying water.

Very little energy is used in the purification of water by this method.

Maintaining UV purifiers is easy and less time-consuming.

Disadvantages of UV water purifier

It kills bacteria and viruses present in water but does not remove dissolved impurities such as pesticides, rust, arsenic, fluoride, etc.

It does not convert hard water into soft water.

UV water purifier always needs electricity. If there are more electricity cut offs in your area and there is no storage tank installed in the water purifier.

If you do not have electricity, there is no source of purified water.

It is not effective on muddy water. If the water is muddy then first you have to pass this water through another purifier, after that you will have to pass through UV purifier.

UV rays do not last forever in water. If UV rays miss any microorganism, then this living microorganism will increase its population and contaminate the water. That's why it is advisable to use chlorine after purifying the water with UV.

What is a UF water purifier?

The full form of UF is "Ultra Filtration". This is a basic technology which is somewhat similar to RO water purifier. However, it is not as advance as RO technology.

Like RO, UF water purifier also works based on semi-permeable membranes. In this the holes of the membrane are bigger than the holes of the RO membrane. This membrane works to remove contaminants from water molecules.

How does the UF water purifier work?

In this, water is pushed towards the membrane by using hydrostatic force. There are small holes in this membrane through which water molecules can pass, but microscopic components and germs cannot pass because their size is larger than the size of water molecules. That's why these impurities get separated from the water and the UF water purifier provides us pure drinking water.

This purification process is completely natural and no chemicals are used in it. Even electricity is not required in this.

Advantages of UF water purifier

In this, two basic filters are used to remove impurities, which are very cheap.

It gives pure water even from boiled water. Because after the death of bacteria in boiled water, their body remains in the water, while the UF water purifier separates them.

It works on gravity and natural water pressure, so it does not require electricity.

It can also convert muddy water into clean water.

Not much material is used in it and the weight is also less. So it is easy to carry it from one place to another.

Its maintenance cost is very less.

It is very easy to install it.

There is no water waste in it and it is eco-friendly.

Disadvantages of UF water purifier

The biggest disadvantage of the UF filter is that it does not separate harmful salts and heavy metals dissolved in water. Toxic sub-metals like cadmium, arsenic, lead, mercury etc. cause fatal diseases like cancer. These can be separated from water only by using RO water purifier.