Reverse osmosis is not a filtration process i.e. it does not separate salts from water by particle size difference across a semi-permeable membrane
Actually RO membrane is treated chemically to make the flow rate of water molecules very high compared to the flow rate of salts molecules (very low) across the membrane. As a result, water molecules pass though the membrane and salt molecules are rejected (minor amount of salts passes) because the sudden reduction in the flow rate of salts
So that salt rejection across the membrane can't be "one hundred%" it is usually "ninety nine point nine%" and in the desalination engineering they say the quality of thermal desalination processes has efficiency better than the membrane processes
Reverse Osmosis works by using a high pressure pump to increase the pressure on the salt side of the RO and force the water across the semi-permeable RO membrane, leaving almost all (around% to%) of dissolved salts behind in the reject stream. The amount of pressure required depends on the salt concentration of the feed water. The more concentrated the feed water, the more pressure is required to overcome the osmotic pressure.
The desalinated water that is demineralized or deionized, is called permeate (or product) water. The water stream that carries the concentrated contaminants that did not pass through the RO membrane is called the reject (or concentrate) stream.
by
Gulam Mustafa Ali Khan , Science & English Teacher , Madina Mission School, Hyderabad, India.
Reverse osmosis (RO) is a water purification technology that uses a semipermeable membrane to remove larger particles from drinking water. In reverse osmosis, an applied pressure is used to overcome osmotic pressure, a colligative property, that is driven by chemical potential, a thermodynamic parameter.