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Remember learning about osmosis in biology class?  Here’s a quick recap: osmosis is the spontaneous passage of water molecules through a semipermeable membrane. The phenomenon is generally due to concentration differences where the solvent flows from the less concentrated solution to the more concentrated one to reach equilibrium.

In this case, reverse osmosis (RO for short) reverses this process and is a fundamental part of water treatment: removing dissolved salts, particles, organic substances, bacteria and pyrogens that would lower its quality. Let’s find out more about how it works with Prismatech.

Why is the reverse osmosis process important?

For both drinking water and water for various food and non-food products, it is necessary to have a ‘standardised’ product. Thanks to reverse osmosis, fluctuations in the characteristics of water taken from a well or aqueduct can be reduced, which is naturally necessary to ensure that the end product is always of the same quality. In addition, this process can serve to make the mixing of certain products easier, thus helping to optimise the use of ingredients with considerable savings in time and resources.

What do you need to know before you start?

In order to exploit the potential of the osmosis process, it’s important to know the physical, chemical and microbiological analysis of the water. If these are not available, you can rely on Prismatech’s know-how: this first step is very important to know exactly how to dimension the machinery and define all the pre- and post-treatments. It is also essential to know the intended usage of the final water, and hence if it will need special characteristics, to configure the machine correctly.

The OSMO-TECH purification system from Prismatech

This technology from Prismatech is suitable for various industrial applications, e.g. where production water free of minerals and ions is required, such as for food and beverage, for the pharmaceutical and chemical industries, and more.

THE SYSTEM

The OSMO-TECH plant is composed as follows:

• Stainless steel skid
• In-line dosing of anti-scaling and other chemical conditioners
• High-pressure pump to maintain a constant flow through the membranes
• Set of reverse osmosis (RO) membranes, fibreglass or stainless-steel pressure vessels, polyamide membranes
• Stainless steel piping
• Set of electronic instruments to measure, in various stages
  • REDOX measuring oxidation
  • FLOW METERS to control the flow of produced water and water rejected from the system
  • CONDUCTIVITY-METER to measure the conductivity of produced water (permeate)
  • PRESSURE TRANSDUCER to prevent peaks for the protection of the membranes, which are delicate by nature in order to be functional
  • TEMPERATURE CONTROL

• Switchboard with touch panel and PLC for automatic management of the reverse osmosis plant, with option to choose the water recipe in production
• Set of analogue instruments for backup control of the electronic instrumentation
• Dedicated CIP for membrane washing, which can also be with hot washing, preventing scaling buildup and contamination

How does the process work?

The incoming water is first treated according to the analyses and then the anti-scaling is dosed to prevent buildup. The pump is then used to push the water towards the membranes that perform reverse osmosis in one or two passages.

The ‘good’ output water is called permeate and is subsequently remineralised or used pure, while the concentrate or ‘waste’ is drained and can also be recovered for other uses.

Sustainability, efficiency, and customisation

Designed to offer high performance and maximum reliability, PRISMATECH reverse osmosis systems meet all space and process requirements, while also ensuring great energy savings.

In every industrial process for beverage production and water treatment, waste is minimised, preserving the beverage characteristics to guarantee a product of the highest quality at all times.