Reverse Osmosis Systems Pretreatment

Reverse osmosis (RO) processes treat water to make it safe for drinking, commercial applications, and industrial use. Before reverse osmosis begins, however, it’s important to pretreat the water to remove contaminants and protect the reverse osmosis equipment. Learn more about the value of system maintenance and water pretreatment, the pretreatment process, and the treatment solutions we offer at Reynolds Culligan Water.

RO Water System Maintenance at a Glance

Properly scheduled maintenance helps keep RO systems running efficiently to reliably produce safe water for diverse applications. One of the first steps in developing your maintenance plan should be to verify the manufacturer’s instructions for maintenance frequency.

To ensure that your equipment will continue to perform optimally, key elements of an RO system maintenance schedule include:

  • Replacing the pre-filters: Anytime from six months to a year
  • Sanitizing the system: Once each year
  • Reviewing the pressure of the storage tank: Once each year
  • Replacing the post-filters: Once each or every other year
  • Replacing the reverse osmosis membrane: Once every two or three years

The appropriate timeline will vary, of course, based on the volume of water you’re treating and the concentration of filtered particulates that the system must handle. Replacing the filters will help prevent clogging, which otherwise reduces the amount of water a system can generate over time.

Importance of Pretreatment of Water

System maintenance is only one of the ways to care for your RO equipment. Effective water treatment processes involve multiple stages, and one of the most important is water pretreatment. This precursor to the actual reverse osmosis filtration process can help protect the system from degradation and ensure better, lasting performance.

Safeguarding Machinery and Promoting Infrastructure Longevity

RO membranes, pumps, and filters can be sensitive to particulates within water. Similarly, storage tanks, piping, and related infrastructure components can suffer damage when exposed to corrosive contaminants. Removing them before reverse osmosis begins will protect your equipment and optimize performance by reducing the likelihood of clogs. This has the added benefit of lessening the frequency and cost of equipment maintenance and repairs.

Enhancing Quality

Effective treatment plans utilize different methods to remove a broad spectrum of impurities, ensure water safety, and facilitate reverse osmosis or other techniques. Pretreatment targets contaminants such as:

  • Microorganisms like bacteria and viruses
  • Suspended solids
  • Organic compounds
  • Minerals
  • Heavy metals
  • Sediment
  • Pollutants

Operating Efficiently

By breaking the treatment process down into different stages, water treatment equipment doesn’t have to work as hard to purify the water, enabling greater efficiency and performance while reducing overall energy demand. This gives water treatment facilities and industrial centers more effective options for filtration, coagulation, and sedimentation processes without requiring them to dose the water with exorbitant amounts of chemicals.

Regulatory Compliance

Regional and national governing bodies set strict guidelines regarding water treatment. The processes involved in pretreatment are essential for producing potable water and handling wastewater discharge.

Our Process

At Reynolds Culligan, we utilize a multistage process for the efficient, effective pretreatment of water before reverse osmosis.

  1. Sediment Filtration
    Utilizing sediment filters, we first remove larger debris from feed water. This includes sediment, suspended solids, and other large particles. Sediment filtration reduces damage to the RO membrane and mitigates the risk of clogs.
  2. Carbon Filtration
    Using activated charcoal filters, carbon filtration catches and removes volatile organic compounds (VOCs), chlorine, and more. This enhances water quality as well as the water’s taste and smell.
  3. Water Softening
    Hard water contains calcium, magnesium, and other minerals that can cause scaling in the RO membrane. Water softeners remove such minerals from the water stream to enhance the membrane’s longevity.
  4. Antiscalant Injection
    Next, we add an antiscalant chemical to the water, counteracting the effects of dissolved mineral concentrations. This, too, prevents scale from growing on the membrane’s surface to promote optimal performance.
  5. pH Adjustment
    To achieve the correct pH level in the water for the RO membrane, we’ll test and modify it via additions of caustic soda should the water be too acidic, or acid if the water is too basic.
  6. Fine Filtration
    Finally, the water passes through an extremely fine filter that removes any leftover particles. This further reduces the risk of membrane damage.

Reverse Osmosis Systems Pretreatment Services From Reynolds Culligan

Since 1950, Reynolds Culligan has specialized in high-quality water treatment solutions for clients in Maryland, Delaware, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey. Among those solutions are our reverse osmosis and pretreatment services, designed to increase efficiency and effectiveness in your operations while providing pure water in the volumes you need.

Contact us to learn more about the turnkey treatment solutions we offer, or request a free estimate for pretreatment today to get started.