reverse osmosis
nounDefinition of reverse osmosis
: the movement of fresh water through a semipermeable membrane when pressure is applied to a solution (such as seawater) on one side of it
Examples of reverse osmosis in a Sentence
Recent Examples on the Web
The process involves disinfecting the water with chlorine, then membrane filtration, reverse osmosis and ultra violet/advanced oxidation sterilization. — Karen Pearlman, San Diego Union-Tribune, "Helix pledges additional $2.5 million for Padre Dam reclaimed water plan," 9 July 2019 Today, most water desalination uses reverse osmosis, which employs energy to push water through a membrane that excludes salts. — Robert F. Service, Science | AAAS, "This former playwright aims to turn solar and wind power into gasoline," 3 July 2019 There are two types of desalination—thermal, which heats up water and then captures the condensation, and reverse osmosis, which forces sea water through the pores of a membrane that are many times smaller than the diameter of a human hair. — Jim Robbins, WIRED, "Desalination Is Booming as Cities Run out of Water," 27 June 2019 The plan for long missions is also to collect every trace of moisture from breath, sweat and urine, put it through reverse osmosis and add it to the drinking water supply. — Peter Fimrite, SFChronicle.com, "Long-term space journeys to allow humans to become almost completely self-sufficient," 8 June 2019 Unlike other approaches that use reverse osmosis or distillation, TSSE has found success with using a solvent. — David Grossman, Popular Mechanics, "We Might Finally Be Able to Safely Drink Salt Water," 8 May 2019 Privacy - Terms As sap gushes into the sugarhouse, its first stop is to undergo reverse osmosis to extract water, which significantly cuts down the sap’s boiling time, reducing fuel and increasing efficiency. — Jason Wilson, charlotteobserver, "Vermont’s maple syrup business is booming, thanks to technology and changing tastes," 4 May 2018 That level of purity is the result of the very same process that turns seawater fresh down in Carlsbad: reverse osmosis. — Matt Simon, WIRED, "LA Is Doing Water Better Than Your City. Yes, That LA," 12 June 2018 Nearly 8,000 gallons an hour coursed through the spaghetti- like tubing, into the massive sterile holding tanks, and then into the reverse osmosis machinery that begins to remove the water. — Stephanie Hanes, The Christian Science Monitor, "Maple syrup inc.: Vermont’s maple syrup tradition goes high tech, high finance," 18 Apr. 2018These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'reverse osmosis.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Keep scrolling for more