Today, let's talk about the issue of reverse osmosis membrane breaking in the middle.
The main reason for the membrane cracking in the middle is actually due to being damaged by 'holding'. Can you imagine holding a plastic hose, blocking one end with your hand and suddenly turning on the big faucet at the other end? Will the middle of the hose suddenly swell, or even "pop" it open? The reverse osmosis membrane follows a similar principle.
Specifically, the most common issue is that water puts too much pressure on it, or comes too forcefully. For example, when starting up, the high-pressure pump starts with a buzzing sound, and the water flows like a fist and hits one end of the membrane element with a clang. This head of water desperately wants to enter, but if the flow is not smooth enough and the huge pressure has nowhere to go, it can only exert force from the middle and forcefully bend the membrane element. Over time or when the pressure suddenly becomes particularly high, the most vulnerable middle part will break.
Another situation is that the air in the system has not been completely expelled. As soon as the air enters and the machine is turned on, high-pressure water compresses the air, causing severe vibrations and pressure fluctuations. The membrane components inside are also prone to shaking or breaking.
So this membrane is already broken. If there are no conditions to replace it in a while, can we move it somewhere to make do with it? If you have to use it, you can only switch it to the second paragraph. Because the first section is where the water enters first, where the pressure is the highest, the water quality is the dirtiest, and the work is the hardest. A membrane that has already suffered internal injuries and is placed in the head row will definitely be completely scrapped immediately. The pressure in the second paragraph is much less than in the first paragraph, and the environment is slightly "gentle". If this wounded soldier goes there, he may be able to barely hold on for a while.
But doing so is definitely a last resort, and the consequences are not small. The first immediate consequence is that the quality of the water coming out will definitely deteriorate. The membrane is cracked, and its sealing is damaged. Many untreated raw water directly flows through the cracks without removing salt and impurities. The conductivity of the produced water will increase, and the water quality will be unqualified.
Even more troublesome, it can also implicate others. This broken membrane does not have much filtering effect in the second stage, and the high concentration dirty water will directly rush towards the other good membranes in the second stage, causing those originally good membranes to quickly become contaminated and blocked. This is like a mouse dropper spoiling a pot of soup. In order to achieve the original water production capacity, the system may need to increase the operating pressure, and the entire system is in an abnormal high-pressure state, which is an additional burden on equipment such as pumps and pipelines.
So, the temporary solution to breaking the membrane is to let it go to the second stage of "elderly care", but it must be clear in mind that this is only a temporary emergency response, and the water quality has already been affected and is still dragging down the entire system. The most fundamental solution is to order new membrane components as soon as possible and replace them, and check if there are any operational problems, such as starting and stopping too quickly, ensuring sufficient exhaust, and fundamentally avoiding the same problem from happening again.
