The Process of Reverse Osmosis

Osmosis is the passage or diffusion of water through semipermeable membrane

IMG_0173.JPGthat blocks the passage of dissolved solutes.
Diffusion is the intermingling of molecules kept in two separate areas due
to their kinetic motion and tendency towards random motion, and random
velocities.
Semipermeable means the process of allowing certain substances to pass
through it but not others, especially allowing the passage of a solvent but
not of certain solute.
In reverse osmosis, theres a high concentration solution on one side of a tank
and pure water on the other side, separated by a semipermeable membrane. there
would be applied pressure to the high concentration solution side of the tank--enough to
counteract the natural osmotic pressure from the pure water side, and then to push the
saltwater through the filter. (This takes about 50-60 bars of pressure [source: Lenntech].
But because of the size of the pollutants and microorganisms compared to the porosity
of the semi-permeable membrane, only the smaller water molecules would make it to
the other side, thus adding fresh water to the water side, and leaving the pollutants on
the other.
In our design we utilized a semi-permeable membrane made from
polytetrafluoroethylene , or as it is commonly known, Gore-Tex. This material has a pore
size of about 0.0003 millimeter This pore size is viewed as incredibly effective at filtering
out micro organisms, since some of the smallest bacteria and protozoa are around 1
micron, or 0.001 millimeter large. This size of organism can not feasibly fit through
pores that are a third of their size. This process also allows for major contaminants such
as heavy metals and dyes to also be filtered out, this waste water can then be poured
out of the filter apparatus once the desired water is filtered. This current design is able
to filter two cups of water per full tank.
Final product:
Pressure squirt gun $10.00
pvc valves $0.50
Ball valves $4.20
Gore Tex $0.01
Screen $0.05
Total $14.26

Test Results
Turbidity test
A turbidity test is a measurement of suspended solids with in water. Turbidity is
measured by placing a probe into an amount of water and finding at what depth the probe
disappears. Our test of Turbidity showed that before filtering the water had an average turbidity
of 2.5 cm, and after filtering the water was shown to have a turbidity of about 2 cm.
Ammonia test
An Ammonia test consists of putting an indicator that responds to the presence of
Ammonia into water samples, one before filtering and one after filtering. This test shows the
concentration of Ammonia present in the water in parts per million. This test showed that the
filtering of the water allowed for a change between an average of 0.8 ppm of Ammonia before
filtering to an average of 0.7 ppm of Ammonia after filtering.
Bacteria Count test
A Bacteria Count test is exactly as it sounds, a simple count of living bacteria in a given
area before and after filtering. This test is usually done with waterborne bacteria, this was the
case with this test. Due to lack of bacteria and the short life spans of said bacteria, only enough
time for a single test was allowed. This test showed a decrease from a bacteria count of 30
bacteria per search before filtering to a count of 11 bacteria per search after filtering.

Conclusions
While these tests did show universal improvement in safety of the filtered water, these
results do not come close to the widely accepted standards of safe drinking water, and these
also do not even resemble the expected 95% reduction of all pollutants that was viewed as
standard for reverse osmosis filtering. This result alludes to several conclusions: the porosity of
the filter has large enough porosity for debris to filter through, there is a leak around the seal of
the filter and water is not being filtered properly, or the design is such that the act of repassing
the water through the filter once more contaminates the water. The question of porosity can be
easily disregarded by keeping in mind Gore-Tex has a porosity of about of a micron, which is
far too small for any Bacteria, or pollutants to pass through. This leaves only the conclusions
that there is a leak in the seal and that the clean water is becoming contaminated by repassing
through the filter. With this in mind I have drafted a new design which allows for the filtration of
the water to take place away from the clean water containment and allows of the filtered water
to be removed so that is it not contaminated. This solution not only affects the contamination of

the water but also alleviates the worries of a leak by using a PVC seal and insulative tape in
order to ensure a very strong seal is created.

Testing after new design

Turbidity test
This test showed a vast improvement when compared to the previous tests. This
turbidity test showed that with the new apparatus, the probe disappeared at an average of 0.5
cm before filtering, and at an astonishing average of 3 cm after filtering. This shows that the new
design allows for a much closer filtration level to what was expected, however this is still not the
desired result, which leads me to the conclusion that in order to achieve this perfect filtration
much higher quality materials and a slightly more refined design. This is also apparent by the
fact that it required an extremely large amount of effort in order to filter the water, and the fact
that when trying to repeat this result for a third time, the apparatus sprung a leak and i was
unable to filter any water for further tests.