Reverse osmosis osmotic pressure

All solutions exhibit osmotic pressure, which is another colligative properly. Osmotic pressure is a pressure difference between the system and atmospheric pressure. The osmotic pressure of a system can be measured by applying enough pressure to stop the flow of water due to osmosis in the system. The difference between the applied pressure and atmospheric pressure is the osmotic pressure. When pressure greater than the osmotic pressure is applied to a system, the flow of water can be reversed from that of osmosis. This process can be used to obtain useful drinking water from seawater and is known as reverse osmosis. Osmotic pressure is dependent only on the concentration of the... 

When an ideal semipermeable membrane separates an aqueous organic or inorganic solution from pure water, the tendency to equalize concentrations would result in the flow of pure water through the membrane to the solution. The pressure needed to stop the flow is called the osmotic pressure. If the pressure on the solution is increased beyond the osmotic pressure, then the flow would be reversed and the fresh water would pass from the solution through the membrane, therefore the name reverse osmosis. Osmotic pressure is a property of the solution and does not in any way depend on the properties of the membrane. 

Reverse osmosis (RO) entails the use of a semi-permeable membrane (permeable to the solvent, i.e. water molecules, but impermeable to solutes, i.e. contaminants). Osmosis describes the movement of solvent molecules across such a membrane from a solution of lower solute concentration to one of higher solute concentration. The force promoting this movement is termed osmotic pressure . During reverse osmosis, a pressure greater than the natural osmotic pressure is applied to the system from the higher solute concentration side, causing solvent molecules to flow in the opposite direction. 

In reverse osmosis, a pressure equal to the osmotic pressure of seawater is applied to obtain freshwater from seawater. 

Reverse osmosis. A pressure greater than the osmotic pressure of the solution is applied, which causes a net flow of solvent molecules (blue) from the solution to the pure solvent. The solute molecules (green) remain behind. 

The method of reverse osmosis involves application of pressure to the surface of a saline solution, thus forcing pure water to pass from the solution through a semipermeable membrane that does not permit passage of ions. Since the natural osmotic pressure tends to force the water form the region of low ionic concentration to that of the high, to achieve a flow in the opposite direction, as in reverse osmosis, a pressure has to be applied exceeding the osmotic pressure. 

In a process called reverse osmosis, a pressure greater than the osmotic pressure is applied to a solution so that it is forced through a purification membrane. The flow of water is reversed because water flows from an area of lower water concentration to an area of higher water concentration. The molecules and ions in solution stay behind, trapped by the membrane, while water passes through the membrane. This process of reverse osmosis is used in a few desalination plants to obtain pure water from sea (salt) water. However, the pressure that must be applied requires so much energy that reverse osmosis is not yet an economical method for obtaining pure water in most parts of the world. 

Fig. 11.5. Principle of reverse osmosis (Guimberteau et ah, 1989) (a) direct osmosis (b) osmotic equilibrium (OP = osmotic pressure) (c) reverse osmosis (P = pressure greater than osmotic pressure)...

Describe what is meant by osmosis, osmotic pressure, and reverse osmosis. 

The pressure difference between the high and low pressure sides of the membrane is denoted as AP the osmotic pressure difference across the membrane is defined as Att the net driving force for water transport across the membrane is AP — (tAtt, where O is the Staverman reflection coefficient and a = 1 means 100% solute rejection. The standardized terminology recommended for use to describe pressure-driven membrane processes, including that for reverse osmosis, has been reviewed (24). 

Reverse osmosis processes for desalination were first appHed to brackish water, which has a lower I DS concentration than seawater. Brackish water has less than 10,000 mg/L IDS seawater contains greater than 30,000 mg/L IDS. This difference in IDS translates into a substantial difference in osmotic pressure and thus the RO operating pressure required to achieve separation. The need to process feed streams containing larger amounts of dissolved soHds led to the development of RO membranes capable of operating at pressures approaching 10.3 MFa (1500 psi). Desalination plants around the world process both brackish water and seawater (15). 

Feed characteri2ation, particularly for nondesalination appHcatioas, should be the first and foremost objective in the design of a reverse osmosis plant. This involves the determination of the type and concentration of the main solutes and foulants in the stream, temperature, pH, osmotic pressure, etc. Once the feed has been characteri2ed, a reaHstic process objective can be defined. In most cases, some level of pretreatment is needed to reduce the number and concentration of foulants present in the feed stream. Pretreatment necessitates the design of processes other than the RO module, thus the overaH process design should use the minimum pretreatment necessary to meet the process objective. Once the pretreatment steps have been determined and the final feed stream defined, the RO module can be selected. 

Reverse Osmosis. Osmosis is the flow of solvent through a semipermeable membrane, from a dilute solution to a concentrated solution. This flow results from the driving force created by the difference in pressure between the two solutions. Osmotic pressure is the pressure that must be added to the concentrated solution side to stop the solvent flow through the membrane. Reverse osmosis is the process of reversing the flow, forcing water through a membrane from a concentrated solution to a dilute solution to produce pure water. Figure 2 illustrates the processes of osmosis and reverse osmosis. 

Reverse osmosis is created when sufficient pressure is appHed to the concentrated solution to overcome the osmotic pressure. This pressure is... 

Concentration of Seawater by ED. In terms of membrane area, concentration of seawater is the second largest use. Warm seawater is concentrated by ED to 18 to 20% dissolved soHds using membranes with monovalent-ion-selective skins. The EDR process is not used. The osmotic pressure difference between about 19% NaCl solution and partially depleted seawater is about 20,000 kPa (200 atm) at 25°C, which is well beyond the range of reverse osmosis. Salt is produced from the brine by evaporation and crystallisa tion at seven plants in Japan and one each in South Korea, Taiwan, and Kuwait. A second plant is soon to be built in South Korea. None of the plants are justified on economic grounds compared to imported solar or mined salt. 

Membrane Pervaporation Since 1987, membrane pei vapora-tion has become widely accepted in the CPI as an effective means of separation and recovery of liquid-phase process streams. It is most commonly used to dehydrate hquid hydrocarbons to yield a high-purity ethanol, isopropanol, and ethylene glycol product. The method basically consists of a selec tively-permeable membrane layer separating a liquid feed stream and a gas phase permeate stream as shown in Fig. 25-19. The permeation rate and selectivity is governed bv the physicochemical composition of the membrane. Pei vaporation differs From reverse osmosis systems in that the permeate rate is not a function of osmotic pressure, since the permeate is maintained at saturation pressure (Ref. 24). 

Reverse Osmosis. The process of osmosis is used by plants to obtain food and moisture from the soil. The density of the sap in the roots of the plant is greater than that of the soil water surrounding it. The root wall provides a semipermeable membrane, and the difference in suction across it is the osmotic pressure. 

In reverse osmosis, the osmotic pressure is increased manually to get the water to flow from a high-density area through a semipermeable membrane to the lower-density weaker solution. The water will pass through the membrane and leave the solids behind. A pressure of about 2.76 MPa will extract 90% or more of the dissolved absorbed solids further refinement may be achieved through a base exchange process. 

The most important application of semi-permeable membranes is in separations based on reverse osmosis. These membranes generally have pores smaller than 1 nm. The pressure across the semi-permeable membranes for reverse osmosis is generally much larger than those for ultrafiltration, for example. This is because reverse osmosis is usually used for small molecules which have a much higher osmotic pressure, because of the higher number density, than the colloids separated in ultrafiltration. As a result reverse osmosis membranes have to be much more robust than ultrafiltration membranes. Since the focus of our discussion in this chapter will be on reverse osmosis based separations, we will describe these membranes in greater detail. 

Reverse osmosis, (a) When the external pressure (P) is less than the osmotic pressure (71-) (P < it), normal osmosis occurs, (b) When the external pressure exceeds the osmotic pressure, water flows in the opposite direction, producing reverse osmosis. Reverse osmosis can be used to obtain fresh water from seawater. 

An alternative method of purifying water is by reverse osmosis. Under normal conditions, if an aqueous solution is separated by a semi-permeable membrane from pure water, osmosis will lead to water entering the solution to dilute it. If, however, sufficient pressure is applied to the solution, i.e. a pressure in excess of its osmotic pressure, then water will flow through the membrane from the solution the process of reverse osmosis is taking place. This principle has been... 

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