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Water Filters

A filter is a device which removes impurities from water by means of a fine physical barrier and/or chemical processes. Filters are used to cleanse water for irrigation, drinking water, aquariums, and swimming pools. Water Filters can be bought at stores to filter drinking water. Two major brands are PUR and Brita. These water filters remove things that are harmful to your health, things that can increase the chance of getting cancer, and things that taste or smell bad. The phyiscs of filters is based on sieving, ion exchanges and other processes.

Drinking Water Purification

In July 2002, Singapore announced that a process named NEWater would be a significant part of its future water plans. It involves using reverse osmosis to treat domestic wastewater before discharging the NEWater back into the reservoirs.

In the United States, household drinking water filtration systems, including a reverse osmosis step, are commonly used for improving water for drinking and cooking. Such systems typically include four or five stages:

- a sediment filter to trap particles including rust and calcium carbonate
- optionally a second sediment filter with smaller pores
- a carbon filter to trap organic chemicals and chlorination
- a reverse osmosis filter with a thin film composite membrane (TFM or TFC)
- optionally a second carbon filter

Desalination

Other than desalination, reverse osmosis is a more economical unit opearation for concentrating food liquids i.e. fruit juices. Researches are done on concentration of orange juice and tomato juice. Its advantages including a low operating cost and not involving heat processes, which makes it suitable for heat-labile substances like protein and enzymes.