General Information About Water Desalination

Less than 1% of the global fresh water supply is potable. Seawater and brackish water can be converted to drinkable water through reverse osmosis.

While osmosis is a naturally occurring process where solvent molecules spontaneously enter through a semi-permeable membrane into a higher solute concentrate, reverse osmosis purification requires an external force to occur.

Reverse osmosis desalination is a process that purifies seawater or contaminated and undrinkable water sources by forcing water through a membrane, against osmotic pressure, leaving contaminants behind. The result is water devoid of dissolved salts and harmful content.

The seawater membranes used in desalination systems remove salt, bacteria, viruses, protozoa, and cysts, from the raw water. This produces fresh and potable water. Because of this, reverse osmosis is one of the most absolute purification processes, and is used by militaries, hospitals, and communities worldwide.
 

	Family	Known germs	Size range
	Viruses Hepatitis A, Norwalk Virus, Rotavirus, Poliovirus ~0.02 – 0.2 microns	Hepatitis A, Norwalk Virus, Rotavirus, Poliovirus	~0.02 – 0.2 microns
	Bacteria E-coli (Escherichia coli), Salmonella (Salmonella typhimurium), Cholera (Vibrio cholerae) 0.2 – 5 microns	E-coli (Escherichia coli), Salmonella (Salmonella typhimurium), Cholera (Vibrio cholerae)	0.2 – 5 microns
	Protozoans Amoeobiasis (Entamoeba histolytica) 1 – 15 microns	Amoeobiasis (Entamoeba histolytica)	1 – 15 microns
	Cysts Giardia lamblia (Giardia intestinalis), Cryptosporidium (Cryptosporidumparvum) 1–<1 microns hdd	Giardia lamblia (Giardia intestinalis), Cryptosporidium (Cryptosporidumparvum)	1–<1 microns hdd

Membrane Filtration Spectrum