Is 80 Pa Really a 'Huge' Pressure in Desalination Plants?

[lioric]

I went to a desalination plant and the guy explaining reverse osmosis says that they force water through the membrane at a huge pressure of 80 pa

But I was wondering and that is less than 1atm. And it's like an 8kg placed on a 1 square meter space. I thing a 65kg human gives more pressure since the feet is smaller than 1 meter squared.
What am I missing here

 

[jbriggs444]

A quick trip to Google suggests that the relevant figures are in Bars (one atmosphere = 1 bar), not Pascals.

http://www.lenntech.com/desalination-ro-modules.htm

 

[lioric]

I know that. I'm asking this is 80 pa a lot of pressure? Cause that guy in the plant said so and I asked him if he's sure it's pa and he said " yes 80pa " and said it was a " huge" pressure.

 

[gleem]

The guy at the plant is incorrect. It takes pressure of the order of many hundreds of psi to force the water through a membrane depending on the salinity. 80 Pa is as you noted is pretty low. Think of the order of MPa.

 

[lioric]

The guy at the plant is incorrect. It takes pressure of the order of many hundreds of psi to force the water through a membrane depending on the salinity. 80 Pa is as you noted is pretty low. Think of the order of MPa.

Thank you

 

[nasu]

I know that. I'm asking this is 80 pa a lot of pressure? Cause that guy in the plant said so and I asked him if he's sure it's pa and he said " yes 80pa " and said it was a " huge" pressure.

As the link shows, the pressures used are in the range of 80 bar rather than 80 Pa.
So it may be than someone was confused about units.