1.

What are the contaminants that can be removed using each membrane
listed below?
Membrane type Size of pores Target contaminants
Microfiltration (MF) 1-0.1μm • Particles
• Asbestos
• Bacteria
• cellular materials (red blood cells)
Ultrafiltration (UF) 0.1-0.001μm • Large particles
• Microorganisms
• Dissolved bio macromolecules
(pyrogen, protein and viruses)
Nanofiltration (NF) 1nm-10 nm • Organic molecules
• Viruses
• A range of salts
• Divalent ions
Reverse osmosis (RO) no pores • Aqueous organic solids (minerals, salt
ions, and metal ions)
• All viruses
• Organic substances
• Pesticides and Detergents
• Nitrates and sulphates
• Arsenic and Fluoride
• Lead
• Chlorine and chloramine

2. How the RO membranes work?

In Reverse osmosis, pressure is increased in feed water side by using high
pressure pump. Due to this high pressure the water is forced to flow through
semipermeable RO membrane whenever most of the dissolved salts in water
leave behind in reject stream. Here the amount of pressure that needs in pump
 will depend on the amount of concentration in feed water. When the concentration
of feed water is high more pressure is required in order to overcome from osmotic
pressure. Here, in RO membrane the filtering process will be more effective when
it is cross filtering rather than the standard filtering because in cross filtering the
concentrated water goes through a reject stream and permeate water goes to
another way whenever in standard filtering contaminants will remain on the filter
media. Due to that, cross filtering will avoid the blocking of membrane layer and
it will tend to have enough turbulence to keep the membrane surface clean.
Here before enter to the RO membrane some pre-treatment processes will
require in order to have smooth working of RO membrane and also after the RO
membrane filtering, post treatment will need since the minerals that is required to
stay in water will also can remove through the membrane process. Therefore,
after doing membrane filtering those minerals should be added to water.

RO membrane
Feed
water Permeate
pump water

Reject stream

Feed water-Contaminants concentration is high (Inlet water to the RO membrane)

Permeate water - Contaminants concentration is very low (Outlet filter way)
Reject stream - High concentration than feed water