Challenges to avoid in Industrial Reverse Osmosis Systems

It is understood that when reverse osmosis systems face a certain number of challenges in households, those are bound to be there on a larger scale in industrial RO systems. A maximum number of industries in today’s date use Reverse Osmosis as a core process for solvent purposes, wastewater treatment, sterilizing, cleaning, production and many other activities.

This makes RO systems one of the most important aspects of an industrial shop floor. However, just ordering an RO system according to the capacity required is not going to end the problems. Listed below are some challenges that are usually overlooked while buying and installing an industrial reverse osmosis system.

 Pretreatment: In most cases, the water which is being supplied to the RO system is hard water. It contains many chemicals and substances that can lead to the disintegration of the RO membrane. And hence to keep the efficiency of the system intact, a pretreatment system must be installed that uses softeners to eliminate chemicals. This also avoids unnecessary maintenance costs.  Prevention of Chlorine: Chlorine as a biological inhibitor works better on microorganisms than on the thin polyamide membrane. This is used in the pretreatment unit to inhibit the growth of microorganisms so that degradation of the membrane is prevented. However, even chlorine in large amounts can account for membrane disintegration.

 Scale inhibition: Keeping in mind the scaling components of the water, another challenge can be overcome easily by operating antiscalants in the water that avoids scale formation on the membrane. The scales are formed by either microorganisms or chemicals which can be avoided pre-treatment phase.  Controls and instruments: In case you don’t have operators especially to take care of the RO systems, certain controls and threshold alarm systems must be put in place in case things go wrong. It will give you time to shut down the unit and call for experts to look into the matter. This will save the unit from a permanent damage and save your time and money.

 Installation: The best way to ensure everything goes smoothly and every point are taken care of during installation are to hire a professional. Installation not only involves placing of the system but also placement of the valves that send water into the membrane. This can be best decided by the company you buy the RO from as based on your needs of the system, they can devise the best option.

Industrial reverse osmosis systems are used for seawater desalination across the world and many other purposes. Ensuring the challenges of installing such a system is taken care of can reduce future problems by almost 80%.