Reverse Osmosis Membrane Facts - Discover If Their Tiny Pores Actually Will Protect Your Family

A reverse osmosis membrane is at the heart of this complex water treatment system. All the science that is packed into these treatment devices is forcing water through the extremely tiny pores in the membrane.

So the reverse osmosis membrane holds the key to how good the device is -- and right at the start let me warn you that these devices are not all that good for keeping households safe.

There are three types of reverse osmosis membrane. Each is distinguished by the size of the pores.

One of the earlier uses for reverse osmosis water treatment equipment was in Middle East desert coastline farms where it turned sea water into brackish water that was 'fresh' enough to irrigate crops. The membranes for these are built to take pressures of 7000kPa and have pores tiny enough to block all but 1 percent of 32,000mg/L salt.

If the reverse osmosis membranes are installed to treat brackish water will take pressures of up to 1500kPa and have slightly bigger pores. In these membranes all but 1 percent of 2,000mg/L salt in the water will be blocked.

Finally there are reverse osmosis membranes designed to work under low pressure and used by city water treatment authorities. These will take around 800 or 900kPa of pressure and their bigger pores will block all but 1 percent of water containing around 500mg/L salt.

The unfortunate fact with these membranes is that they block out the healthy minerals we normally get from water, like calcium and magnesium. These and other essential minerals our bodies absolutely must have, and which come naturally to us as we eat and drink, are located deep in the earth. Ground water dissolves minute traces of them and slowly these dissolved minerals rise to the surface and enter the water sources where we draw our drinking water. We must have them, but reverse osmosis membranes block them because their molecular size is larger than the molecular size of water. They are too big to pass through.

But this is even worse, because while the membrane pores are tiny they are still too big to stop many dangerous chemicals and pharmaceuticals that will find their way into your water supply if you are drawing on water that is affected by farm run-off or industrial factories. The molecular size of these compounds is often so small they pass through easily.

There are no chemicals or pharmaceuticals in deep ocean water, so reverse osmosis is used to treat water in submarines. The sailors will still not get healthy minerals while on duty, but they will be in port regularly and for long periods and the navy deems this is enough.

But your home needs to be better protected. Instead of using a treatment system based on a reverse osmosis membrane, you need to find a system that will stop traces of chemicals and pharmaceuticals getting into your drinking water and at the same time permit the vital, natural essential minerals to pass through. There are systems out there that will do this economically and you will find them on the Internet. Actually my own web site has a lot of useful information about this very thing, so maybe you'd want to start looking there. Click across to my site now, if that would help you, as many people have found it helpful.

Autor: Len McGrane

Len McGrane writes about home water purifiers and pure drinking water from his web site, http://www.pure-drinkingwater.com where he gives advice and helps visitors with reverse osmosis membrane information.

Added: February 4, 2009
Source: http://ezinearticles.com/