Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
| Domain | Definition |
Environment | A treatment process used in water systems by adding pressure to force water through a semi-permeable membrane. Reverse osmosis removes most drinking water contaminants. Also used in wastewater treatment. Large-scale reverse osmosis plants are being developed. (references) |
Hydrologic | (1) (Desalination) The process of removing salts from water using a membrane. With reverse osmosis, the product water passes through a fine membrane that the salts are unable to pass through, while the salt waste (brine) is removed and disposed. This process differs from electrodialysis, where the salts are extracted from the feedwater by using a membrane with an electrical current to separate the ions. The positive ions go through one membrane, while the negative ions flow through a different membrane, leaving the end product of freshwater. (2) (Water Quality) An advanced method of water or wastewater treatment that relies on a semi-permeable membrane to separate waters from pollutants. An external force is used to reverse the normal osmotic process resulting in the solvent moving from a solution of higher concentration to one of lower concentration. (references) |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)
This process is used in treating sea water to get distilled water.
When two solutions with different concentrations of a solute are mixed together, the total amount of solutes in the two solutions will be equally distributed in the total amount of solvent from the two solutions. This is achieved by diffusion, in which solutes will move from areas of higher concentration to areas of lower concentrations until the concentration in all the different areas of the resulting mixture are the same, a state called equilibrium.
Instead of mixing the two solutions together, they can be put in two compartments where they are separated from each other by a semipermeable membrane. The semipermeable membrane doesn't allow the solutes to move from one compartment to the other, but allows the solvent to move. Equilibrium cannot be achieved by the movement of solutes from the compartment with high solute concentration to the one with low solute concentration. Equilibrium is, instead, achieved by the movement of the solvent from areas of low solvent concentration to areas of high solvent concentration. When the solvent moves away from low concentration areas, it causes these areas to become more concentrated. On the other side, when water pores into areas of high concentration, there concentration will decrease. This process is termed osmosis.
In reverse osmosis, in a similar setup as that in osmosis, pressure is applied to the compartment with high concentration. In this case, there are two forces to consider regarding the movement of water: the force of solute concentration difference between the two compartments and the force caused by the externally applied pressure. In the same manner, the solvent cannot move from areas of high pressure to areas of low pressure, because the membrane is not permeable to them. Only water can move in this way. When the effect of the externally applied pressure is greater than that of the concentration difference, net water movement will be from areas of high solute concentration to low solute concentration, and reverse osmosis occurs.
Reverse osmosis in use
In July 2002, Singapore announced that a process named NEWater would be a significant part of its future water plans. It involves using reverse osmosis to treat domestic wastewater before discharging the NEWater back into the reservoirs. [1]
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Reverse osmosis."
Crosswords: REVERSE OSMOSIS |
| Specialty definitions using "REVERSE OSMOSIS": reverse osmosis/deionised water, reverse osmosis/deionized water, RO/DI water. (references) |
| Domain | Title |
Books | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Subject | Topic | Quote |
Health | Reverse osmosis filters work against crypto whether they have been tested by NSF or not. Many other filters not tested by NSF also work if they have an absolute pore size of 1 micron or smaller. (references) | |
Business | This gravity-based reverse osmosis water desalination project will be used as an alternative solution to conventional resources for increasing the fresh water supply. (references) | |
Economic History | Saudi Arabia | Multi-flash stage and reverse osmosis systems are the most commonly used systems for desalination in Saudi Arabia. (references) |
Uae | US companies with reverse osmosis technology should make an effort to update UAE officials on technological developments made to overcome those problems. (references) | |
Bahrain | The original plant consists of seven reverse osmosis (RO) trains, which were supplemented by an eight-train addition in 1994. Under the expansion scheme, two additional RO trains will be installed, increasing total plant production capacity to 15.8 MGPD gallons. (references) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits. | ||
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "e-e-e-i-m-o-o-r-r-s-s-s-s-v" | |
-5 letters: misereres, overseers, sorosises. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
Hexadecimal (or equivalents, 770AD-1900s) (references)52 45 56 45 52 53 45 4F 53 4D 4F 53 49 53 |
| Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519; backwards) (references)
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Binary Code (1918-1938, probably earlier) (references)01010010 01000101 01010110 01000101 01010010 01010011 01000101 00100000 01001111 01010011 01001101 01001111 01010011 01001001 01010011 |
HTML Code (1990) (references)R E V E R S E   O S M O S I S |
ISO 10646 (1991-1993) (references)0052 0045 0056 0045 0052 0053 0045 004F 0053 004D 004F 0053 0049 0053 |
Encryption (beginner's substitution cypher): (references)52395639525339249534749534353 |
| 1. Crosswords 2. Usage: Commercial 3. Quotations: Non-fiction 4. Expressions: Internet | 5. Anagrams 6. Orthography 7. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
