Normal osmosis & Reverse Osmosis: Why reverse osmosis become popular in India?

The movement of particles are directed from high concentration to low concentration through a membrane in Normal osmosis (NO). While, The movement of particles are directed from low concentration to high concentration through membrane in Reverse Osmosis (RO). It is the process of pushing a solution through filler that traps the solute on the side and allows the pure solvent to be obtained from the other side. Here water leaves salty side of membrane under pressure created mechanically or electronically. Required pressure for desalination of sea water through RO, is about 50-60 bars.

It is observed that the lowering of water table has reduced the availability of ground water and deteriorated its quality. In some areas it is simply not available. Because of such and other reasons today industries are actively considering recycle of waste water. When such water is subjected to NO, it is not so cleaned to make it hygienic. Arsenic, Iron etc. are chemicals that are dissolved in water. They can be removed only by heavy pressurised condition of RO process.

Thus it can be said that due to quality of water that can be achieved by RO, that process has been more popular in India than NO process.

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