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Welcome to AROPSA
Many countries within Southern Africa are water constrained. Reverse osmosis technology is mature and robust, so there is a place in the overall managagement strategy of these water-constrained countries for this technology. AROPSA provides a platform that can serve the SADC water sector, by bringing together stakeholders in a way that reaches optimal solutions at different levels of scale.
Reverse osmosis technology was originally mainstreamed when the manned space program took place in the 1960's. Humans need water to survive, and because it is heavy, a spacecraft cannot take large volumes of the precious resource with it on long missions. The solution was therefore to recycle the limited water onboard the spacecraft, in a way that reduced the overall mass, while also protecting the crew. Since then reverse osmosis technologies have evolved to very high levels of sophistication.
To understand how reverse osmosis works click here and here. Examples of this technology for the household are available here. The significance of the technology is that it works down to the molecular level, which means that water being treated by this process is extremely pure. The good news is that the engineering processes are becoming increasingly sophisticated, which means that costs are coming down, while water recovery is going up. In some large commercial plants a water recovery in excess of 95% is being recorded. This means that brine disposal is becoming less of a barrier than before. These characteristics mean that reverse osmosis technology is set to become a significant component of our water management approach in the SADC region, specifically as we move to a higher level of recycling.
In order to appreciate the trends in desalination using reverse osmosis technology, please refer to this recent article in Creamers Engineering News by clicking here.
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