Food Industry

Reverse Osmoses Process for Production of Mineral Water
Sources of Water
The raw water that is used for the production of mineral water is taken from an underground source or a nearby river. The water is pumped from the river of the underground source to a storage tank.

Sedimentation And Filtration
Surface water collected contains varying amounts of suspended solids that also includes silt, clay, bacteria, viruses. These suspended solids is to be removed prior to further treatment. This is done through sedimentation and filteration.

Sand Filtration is uses to take care of the suspended particles present in the water through a multigrade sand filter. Here the suspended particles get trapped on the sand bed.

The filtered water will be then passed through the activated carbon filter to remove further traces of free chlorine/ organic or any unwanted order of colour.

The filter have to be backwashed every 24 hours or if the pressure drop across the filter exceeds .5 kg/cm2, whichever is earlier.

Chemical Dosing
To control calcium sulphate scaling, SHMP (Sodiumhexameta Phosphate) dosing is done in reverse osmoses feed water by means of dosing pump. SHMP acts as a scale Inhibitor and Tends to retard the growth of sulphate crystals and permits super saturation of sulphate salts in the brine stream.

To avoid organic growth on the membranes, Sodium Meta BI Sulphite (SMBS) dosing is done.

By dosing above two chemicals, the life of the membrane filter are increased.

Desalination by Reverse Osmosis
Reverse Osmosis is a high pressure (15 kg/ sq.cm. to 60 kg/ sq.cm.) energy efficient seperation process. Low Molecular weight organic solutes and inorganic salts are concentrated while water is allowed to pass. The pore size of 5 - 20 A0 (ugstrom Units) of the membrane retains over 95 -99 % of the dissolved salts.

The feed water will be pumped by means of high pressure pump through the membrane assembly. Around 60% of the feed water will be available as permeate of product water and balance 40% will be rejected stream or concentrated brine solution, which will be effluent from the R.O. Plant.

The R.O. product water, also known as a permeate water, is collected in a stainless steel water storage tank.

The R.O. product water has balanced mineral content. If the mineral content is to be increased, blending of carbon filter water can be done to increase the TDS or the mineral content.

Analysis and Quality Control Testing
After blending, the samples are regularly taken at intervals of every one hour and then it is tested. Corrective action is taken in the Blending Unit.

Bottle Filling and Sealing Unit
The bottles used for this unit are initially purchased from market and later on a unit is installed for manufacture of plastic bottles. The manual and semi automatic machine is used for the production of pet bottles, filled by bottle filling plant and sealed by automatic machines.

Packaging
The bottles after sealing are packed in cardboard boxes each containing 10 or 12 bottles of 1 litre or 10-12 bottles. They are put in a corrugated carbon tray and then wrapped with shrink grade plastic in Heat shrink Tunnel Machine.