What is Reverse Osmosis?Updated 2 months ago

Osmosis is when water passes through a membrane (a sheetlike boundary) and other materials cannot pass through or can only pass through in lower amounts. Osmosis happens in all living things naturally, because all life needs water. When water is separated by a membrane, pressure is created by the amount of foreign materials in the water. The pressure will push water from the side of the membrane with less foreign materials until there is a balance between water and foreign particles is equal on both sides.

With some clever science and engineering, osmosis can be made to work for us. We just add pressure, from your home’s water pressure, to the side with more foreign material. The extra pressure can stop or reverse this flow. This means that water will now only flow away from the foreign material. This is Reverse Osmosis.