Performance Evaluation of Reverse Osmosis Technology for the Retention and Rejection of Cations

Water scarcity is a grand challenge that has always stimulated research interests in finding effective means for pure water production. . In order to overcome the challenge of water scarcity various efforts are being taken to develop and advance water production technologies. One of the process for producing clean water from a variety of sources is water desalination. Desalination refers to the process of removing the salts and contaminants from a water source in order to attain clean water which would be suitable for human consumption and domestic and industrial usage. Reverse Osmosis (RO) is currently one of the most reliable technique for water desalination and is being used as an alternative source for the production of clean water so that the water desalination costs are minimized.This paper aims to provide an overview on the various aspects of RO desalination process- the fundamentals, theory, and various parameters like concentration and pressure on the desalination process. This paper also discusses the synergic effect, which represents a serious challenge in RO processes (i.e. the effect of presence of one or more cations in the feed water).