Technique for using reverse osmosis unit

In combination,

• a carbonator having a feed water inlet and a carbonated water outlet;
• a post-mix soft drink dispenser having an inlet in communication with the carbonated water outlet, means for connection to a syrup container, a product outlet valve, and means responsive to manipulation of the outlet valve for delivering a predetermined proportion of carbonated water from the carbonator and syrup from the container to the outlet valve;
• a reverse osmosis unit having a feed water inlet, a semipermeable membrane open to the unit inlet, a unit outlet in permeate receiving relation with the membrane and a drain in concentrate receiving relation with the membrane, the unit outlet being in communication with the carbonator feed water inlet;
• and
• a filter assembly including
• an inlet connection comprising the unit inlet;
• a pre-filter arrangement including a housing in communication with the unit inlet having a cartridge therein for removing suspended particulates above a predetermined size, a pressure gauge in communication with the housing and an outlet;
• a post-filter arrangement including a housing having an inlet and an activated carbon media therein for adsorbing dissolved gases from the permeate, a pressure gauge in communication with the housing and an outlet comprising the unit outlet;
• and
• a manifold between the pre-filter arrangement, the post-filter arrangement, and the reverse osmosis unit including
• a bypass conduit connecting the pre-filter housing and the post-filter housing and having a normally closed valve therein;
• a first conduit communicating with the bypass conduit between the normally closed valve and the pre-filter housing, the first conduit having a normally open valve therein and being connected to the reverse osmosis unit for delivering feed water thereto;
• a second conduit communicating with the bypass conduit between the normally closed valve and the post-filter housing, the second conduit having a normally open valve therein and being connected to the reverse osmosis unit for delivering permeate therefrom;
• a permeate storage tank;
• and
• a third conduit communicating with the bypass conduit between the normally closed valve and the post-filter housing, the third conduit having a normally open valve therein and being connected to the storage tank for delivering permeate therein.

A method of producing carbonated soft drinks comprising the steps of

• conducting a reverse osmosis water treatment on inlet feed water to produce a dissolved solids rich concentrate and a dissolved solids poor permeate;
• discarding the concentrate;
• delivering the permeate to a carbonator and mixing carbon dioxide with the permeate therein;
• delivering the carbonated permeate to a post-mix dispenser and mixing a quantity of the carbonated permeate with a predetermined quantity of soft drink syrup;
• and
• delivering the mixture of carbonated permeate and syrup from the post-mix dispenser.

A method of producing carbonated soft drinks comprising the steps of

• conducting a reverse osmosis water treatment on inlet feed water to produce a dissolved solids rich concentrate and a dissolved solids poor permeate;
• discarding the concentrate;
• delivering the permeate to a carbonator and mixing carbon dioxide with the permeate therein;
• delivering the carbonated permeate to a post-mix dispenser and mixing a quantity of the carbonated permeate with a quantity of soft drink syrup;
• delivering the mixture of carbonated permeate and syrup from the post-mix dispenser;
• and
• delivering a quantity of uncarbonated permeate into a bread dough and baking the bread dough.