Reverse osmosis (RO) is used to reduce dissolved solids from feed waters with salinities up to 45,000 ppm TDS (total dissolved solids). Municipalities and industrial facilities are able to use RO permeate as a consistently pure drinking water supply and to transform drinking water to high purity water for industrial use at microelectronics, food and beverage, power, and pharmaceutical facilities. The technology is also very effective at removing bacteria, pyrogens, and organic contaminants.

Reverse osmosis separation technology is used to remove dissolved impurities from water through the use of a semi-permeable membrane. RO involves the reversal of flow through a membrane from a high salinity, or concentrated, solution to the high purity, or "permeate", stream on the opposite side of the membrane. Pressure is used as the driving force for the separation. The applied pressure (P) must be in excess of the osmotic pressure of the dissolved contaminants to allow flow across the membrane.

Click to see an animation
depicting Reverse Osmosis

GE Water & Process Technologies uses spiral-wound membranes - tightly packed filter material sandwiched between mesh spacers and wrapped in a small-diameter tube - to desalt and demineralize process water. The membrane's operating conditions are fine-tuned to balance the flux, or the amount of water which passes through the membrane, with the specific rejection rates of contaminants to achieve up to 99.8% salt rejection at low pressures and high flux rates.

A one-stop source for platforms that serve your water purification needs
Reverse Osmosis systems from GE deliver high performance at the lowest life-cycle costs. Our pre-engineered systems are built with high-quality components designed specifically for water purification. They arrive at your facility ready to run with all filters, membranes, pumps, piping, controls and automation.

GE spiral-wound membranes are cost-effective thin-film elements used to remove salts and separate organic material, by molecular weight or particle charge. Our products cover a broad range of applications, including:

	Desalination
	Food/beverage process separations
	Industrial process separations

 

We supply membrane elements, reverse osmosis (RO) systems, filters, pumps, nanofiltration and ultrafiltration equipment and other components. GE is also unique in our Single Point Accountability for the design and operation of these units. We build the complete machine, but the GE brand is also on the membrane elements, controls, filters and high pressure pumps to insure quality and responsiveness to your concerns.

Water equipment primary components
GE supports you with a wide range of RO system components:

	Autotrol multi-port valves for sand filters, activated carbon filters and water softeners.
	Tonkaflo Pumps, Sanitary stainless steel membrane housings
	Sievers 400 ES Pharma and 900 Series  TOC analyzers
	Aquamatic valves
	E-Series ozone disinfection systems

With more than 30 years of spiral membrane development and manufacturing expertise, GE can tailor an economical solution that creates value for you while reducing your operating costs.