BBL_Brewer
Well-Known Member
I was browsing the net today and stumbled across this article on zero waste reverse osmosis systems. Apparently they are already selling them as well.
http://www.wwdmag.com/membranes-reverse-osmosis/zero-waste-look-future-reverse-osmosis
http://www.costco.com/Premier-Zero-Waste-Reverse-Osmosis-System.product.10034720.html
It's basically your plain Jane RO unit that routes the waste water back into the hot water side of the household plumbing. Makes perfect sense since you don't use hot water for cooking or drinking. This completely eliminates waste water and makes the units 100% efficient. Sounds easy enough, but what I'm not getting is how exactly does it feed the waste water back into the hot water distribution side? At a 4:1 ratio of waste to permeate, that's a lot of waste water that has to go somewhere. If you're not using any hot water while the RO unit is running, where does the water go? I'm thinking that you would have to have a storage tank for the waste water that would feed it back into the water heater or somewhere upstream of the water heater. But the units they are selling don't have such a storage tank. Only the standard pressurized tank for permeate storage and delivery. I suppose as the RO unit uses water and waste is reintroduced into the household plumping that you end up with an equilibrium of water flow. But how would you keep the waste water isolated on the hot water side of the distribution system? Anyone have any bright ideas as to how they might be accomplishing this?
http://www.wwdmag.com/membranes-reverse-osmosis/zero-waste-look-future-reverse-osmosis
http://www.costco.com/Premier-Zero-Waste-Reverse-Osmosis-System.product.10034720.html
It's basically your plain Jane RO unit that routes the waste water back into the hot water side of the household plumbing. Makes perfect sense since you don't use hot water for cooking or drinking. This completely eliminates waste water and makes the units 100% efficient. Sounds easy enough, but what I'm not getting is how exactly does it feed the waste water back into the hot water distribution side? At a 4:1 ratio of waste to permeate, that's a lot of waste water that has to go somewhere. If you're not using any hot water while the RO unit is running, where does the water go? I'm thinking that you would have to have a storage tank for the waste water that would feed it back into the water heater or somewhere upstream of the water heater. But the units they are selling don't have such a storage tank. Only the standard pressurized tank for permeate storage and delivery. I suppose as the RO unit uses water and waste is reintroduced into the household plumping that you end up with an equilibrium of water flow. But how would you keep the waste water isolated on the hot water side of the distribution system? Anyone have any bright ideas as to how they might be accomplishing this?