reverse osmosis

reverse osmosis

reverse osmosis

n. A process by which a solvent such as water is purified of solutes by being forced through a semipermeable membrane through which the solvent, but not the solutes, can pass.

reverse osmosis

n (Chemical Engineering) a technique for purifying water, in which pressure is applied to force liquid through a semipermeable membrane in the opposite direction to that in normal osmosis

reverse′ osmo′sis

n. a process in which pure water is produced by forcing waste or saline water through a semipermeable membrane.

Thesaurus

Noun

1.

reverse osmosis - (chemistry) a method of producing pure water; a solvent passes through a semipermeable membrane in a direction opposite to that for natural osmosis when it is subjected to a hydrostatic pressure greater than the osmotic pressurechemical science, chemistry - the science of matter; the branch of the natural sciences dealing with the composition of substances and their properties and reactionsosmosis - (biology, chemistry) diffusion of molecules through a semipermeable membrane from a place of higher concentration to a place of lower concentration until the concentration on both sides is equal