Reverse Osmosis is an ideal water treatment solution in most types of water. Generally speaking, all major water sources from a treatment standpoint can be broken down into three major categories: tap water, also known as municipal sources, groundwater, which includes brackish water, and saltwater. The biggest distinction between these three types is the Total Dissolved Solids (TDS) content of each type. As a rule of thumb, the American Health Association requires that drinking water is under 1,000 PPM TDS.
Tap water typically comes through a pre-existing infrastructure like city pipes or a damming system. Reverse osmosis is often used in a tap water environment to reduce hardness, or the debris deposited in water from traveling in metal pipes. Total dissolved solids is often a target of water purification in tap water systems. This type of Reverse Osmosis Systems are ideal in places like power plants, pharmaceuticals, laboratories, and hospitals, where an extreme purity of water is crucial to the industry. Tap water typically has a TDS of under 1,000 PPM.
Underground reservoirs of water are often brackish or highly brackish, meaning they contain large volumes of salt, but not enough to be considered salt water. Groundwater reverse osmosis is very common, and one of the best uses of a Reverse Osmosis System to date. Groundwater is most often purified for the agriculture industry, the mining industry, and for residential use. Groundwater is also a prized target of the bottling industry, because the unique mineral combinations often have an appealing taste. Brackish water usually has a TDS of 5,000 PPM or less, but can come in concentrations of up to 12,000 PPM.
Salt water reverse osmosis (sometimes referred to simply as desalination) is the turning of saltwater into drinking water. Ocean water has up to 45,000 PPM TDS. Typically, for environmental reasons, a bore hole is dug in the ocean for this kind of reverse osmosis, but an open intake is more cost effective. The biggest uses of desalination come in providing water in areas that lack a regular supply of fresh water.