Environmental Hazards of Reverse Osmosis

Reverse Osmosis technology is a commonly, globally - conventionally - used water desalination technology. However, the method has some drawbacks.

• During operation, the plant uses pipes to suck in water, so small fish and eggs can get into the water that is sucked in. One idea to solve this is to install a grid or filter at the end of the pipes. Another idea is to pump the water out at the bottom, where there is essentially no life.
• In addition, the operation of the plant - especially the high-pressure reverse osmosis process of pumping water through filters - consumes huge amounts of energy. This energy burden could be reduced if the methane produced in a nearby landfill could be used to meet part of the energy demand.
• The third problem is the residual saturated salt water, which has a higher specific gravity than plain seawater, making it harder to recycle back into the ocean and, if not carefully managed, damaging and destroying aquatic life. This is being tackled by using an existing pipe system operated by the regional water pollution control agency. It runs out into the sea for a long distance and contains spaced outlets that can be used to add salt water back in little by little.
• A further major environmental pollutant is the large amount of microplastics (or resins) that are constantly released into the seas and oceans from the filters used in reverse osmosis technologies.