October 16th, 2009 Reverse Osmosis Bottled Water
Reverse Osmosis Bottled Water
Reverse osmosis was first used as an alternate way of purifying water over 40 years ago. Originally it was used as a way of removing the salt from seawater, to make it drinkable to humans.
Once it had become more well known for it’s capabilities as a water purifier, reverse osmosis appliances were developed and started to enter the general household as early as the 1970s and has since been used as a more Eco-friendly and cost effective way to produce bottled water.
Osmosis is the movement of water from one concentrated solution to another, to balance out the concentration of both solutions through a semi-permeable membrane. For example, water from one (lower concentrated) solution, will transfer through the membrane into the other (higher) concentrated membrane.
The reverse osmosis process is where water is forced through a semi permeable membrane from the stronger solution into the weaker solution, leaving two solutions: one very highly concentrated (which is discarded) and one low concentrated solution which is almost pure to be used as drinking water, bottled and sold.
This way of providing reverse osmosis bottled water to the public is a cheaper way than the distillation factories who distill water and free it from impurities. While the distillation method removes a lot of impurities, as well as all the salts, some contaminants might remain – it depends on the size of the impurity whether it would get through the membrane, or be stopped by it.
Reverse osmosis will result in a good mineral free water, as mineral particles would be too large to break through the membrane. If this is what is wanted from the water, then this process is arguably the best way to go. The fact that it is better for the environment and that it is cheaper to make, and thus cheaper to buy, makes it a very desirable product. It will also remove harmful impurities which are not minerals, such as fluoride. This will ensure that the water is safe to drink making the process good for those who do not have safe drinking water readily available to them.
The downsides to reverse osmosis in water is that by removing the alkali properties, it creates an acidic water which can cause the body some harm; It’s also wasteful in a sense, because it wastes 3x more “contaminated” water than it produces for drinking.
Though, if what you are looking for is a water which is environmentally friendly, cheap and free from dangerous impurities (or impurities which are dangerous in high volumes) such as salt, lead, manganese, iron, calcium and fluoride, then reverse osmosis bottled water is an exceptionally easy process to “create” your pure water.