What to do with "waste" water from RO

[PurdueWaterGuy]

In large scale commercial RO's a portion of the concentrate is looped back thru the booster pump to increase the flow across the surface of the membrane. That makes the boundry layer thinner, which means slightly better water and a reduced chance of fouling.

Depending on what's in the feed water, and what's being done for pre-treatment, you can only "squeeze" the water so far until stuff starts to precipitate out on the membrane surface. With 4" or 8" by 40" membranes you can perform chemical cleans. With 50 or 100 gpd membranes you toss it and order another.

Tim

@ home, 90 gallon tank, dry, waiting for the remodelling to be over
@ work, 19,000 gallon per day RO

Sorry to drag up an old topic. Can someone explain to me why the same water can't be run right back into the RO unit to create a closed loop of sorts? Let's presume here that I have no issue getting the water back into the unit (IE pressure issues sorted). Sorry I'm sure this is a newbie question but I'm making the assumption that the "waste" water is just water that hasn't been filtered enough. Thanks (and sorry again).

 

[angela1]

I actually got tired of wasting waste water and bought a 55 gallon rain barrel for outside (gutter run off) and ran my RO waste water into that. I use the rain barrel for things like filling my kids swimming pool & watering the grass.

You can hook up a pump inside the rain barrel and push the water out a garden hose or sprinkler system.

It seemed silly to pay the sewer bill for disposing of RO waste water and pay for the water out of the tap (double whammy). This way it goes to the rain barrel and I'm only paying for it out of the tap and not paying for the cost of it going down the drain.

I know a guy on Craigslist who sells rain barrels for $35!

 

[PurdueWaterGuy]

Gotta sit down and design an economical high pressure 2-pass RO system. Should be able to get 2 or 3 ppm TDS and 75% recovery with off-the-shelf parts....

I'll do it during the 4 hours a night I waste sleeping

Tim

@ home, 9 gallon tank, dry, waiting for the remodelling to be over
@ work, 19,000 gallon per day RO

 

[angela1]

Gotta sit down and design an economical high pressure 2-pass RO system. Should be able to get 2 or 3 ppm TDS and 75% recovery with off-the-shelf parts....

I'll do it during the 4 hours a night I waste sleeping

Tim

@ home, 9 gallon tank, dry, waiting for the remodelling to be over
@ work, 19,000 gallon per day RO

Indeed there's a market of ready consumers! :idea:

 

[PurdueWaterGuy]

Indeed there's a market of ready consumers! :idea:

So if I do manage to find the time to hash out a design and parts list with prices will you do the marketing research to see if people are actually going to be willing to pay the price?

Tim

@ home, 90 gallon tank, dry, waiting for the remodelling to be over
@ work, 19,000 gallon per day RO

 

[angela1]

So if I do manage to find the time to hash out a design and parts list with prices will you do the marketing research to see if people are actually going to be willing to pay the price?

Tim

@ home, 90 gallon tank, dry, waiting for the remodelling to be over
@ work, 19,000 gallon per day RO

I'm your gal. Hash it out and I'll put it together for market :bounce1::bounce1: I've had a job or two with application in this area and would be happy to help

 

[PurdueWaterGuy]

I'm your gal. Hash it out and I'll put it together for market :bounce1::bounce1: I've had a job or two with application in this area and would be happy to help

Will file your info - kinda busy this weekend - have to cut the grass and dig a trench from the house to the ravine to find out where the drain tile goes. Since I can't find the end in the ravine, it must be buried. Every time it rains the basement floods. And we've been getting some amazing rainstorms this summer....

Tim