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Reverse Osmosis

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What is reverse osmosis? What is reverse osmosis?

Reverse osmosis is a special kind of diffusion. The word reverse means the opposite of the original direction of movement and osmosis is the movement of water molecules from where they are plentiful to less abundant over a selectively permeable membrane. Therefore, reverse osmosis can be define as when the solvent passes through the selectively permeable membrane from where they are less abundant to where they are in abundance. In other words, reverse osmosis is the flow water molecules opposing the natural direction of osmosis through a porous membrane. The reverse osmosis process happens after the osmosis process. Therefore, in order to fully grasp the process of reverse osmosis one has to understand the process of osmosis first. When a lower concentrated solution and a higher concentrated solution are separated by a selectively permeable membrane, water naturally moves across the membrane to the higher concentrated solution to dilute it. In time, the osmotic pressure will counter the diffusion process precisely and then the solutions will be at equilibrium. No net movement of water will be at this stage. This process is called osmosis. But, if there is an adequate amount of counter pressure applied to the concentrated solution to overpower the osmotic pressure, then osmosis will be reversed. The solution is now coerced through the selectively permeable membrane contrary to the natural flow of water. This is called reverse osmosis. Afterwards, ion exclusion takes place. In ion exclusion, the water molecules form a barrier that allows other water molecules to pass through the porous membrane and rejects most of the other contaminants. The water now becomes more pure. With a clear understanding of the two processes, the differentiation between them can be acknowledged. Osmosis is the flow of water

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