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RO Membrane Pore Size and Configurations

Reverse Osmosis membranes have the smallest pore size of about 0.0005 microns, which allows only water molecules to pass through while blocking sodium chloride and other salt molecules that are 0.0007 microns or larger in size. As a result, RO membranes are commonly used in seawater desalination to produce fresh drinking water by purifying sea water.

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Yash Nandurkar
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126 views2 pages

RO Membrane Pore Size and Configurations

Reverse Osmosis membranes have the smallest pore size of about 0.0005 microns, which allows only water molecules to pass through while blocking sodium chloride and other salt molecules that are 0.0007 microns or larger in size. As a result, RO membranes are commonly used in seawater desalination to produce fresh drinking water by purifying sea water.

Uploaded by

Yash Nandurkar
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd

Reverse Osmosis membranes have the smallest pore size of about

0.0005microns. This is just slightly larger than the size of a water


molecule but smaller than the size of a Sodium Chloride Molecule at
0.0007 micron. So Sodium Chloride and all salts are blocked and only
pure water flows through the RO membrane. Thus one of the main
applications of RO membranes is in seawater desalination, by which sea
water is purified to get fresh drinking water.
Membrane

Module

configuration

configuration or

Driving force

Pore size

Common
Applications

operating
method
Flat Sheet (FS)

Plate and frame

Pressure

MF/UF

WWT, ED

Vacuum

MF/UF

iMBR

Pressure

UF/RO

DS, PR

(PF)
Immersed
membranes
Spiral wound
(SW)
Hollow Fiber

Contained in

Pressure (10 - 60

MF/UF/RO

WT, PR

(HF)

pressure vessels
Immersed module

bar)
Vacuum

MF/UF

WT, iMBR

Pressure
Vacuum

MF/UF
MF/UF

WWT, PR, sMBR


sMBR

without pressure
Tubular (TB

vessels
Pressure filtration
Vacuum filtration
with bubbling

DS: Desalination, ED: Electrodialysis, PR: Process Recovery, WT: Water Treatment,
WWT:Wastewater Treatment, sMBR:MBR with side stream membrane, iMBR :MBR with immersed
membrane
MF (microfiltration) - 0.1-10.0 microns molecules
UF (Ultrafiltration) - 5-100 nm molecules

NF (nanofiltration) - 0.5 - 5 nm molecules


RO (reverse osmosis) < 1 nm molecules

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