Dialysate regeneration based on photo-electrochemical urea oxidation and reactive adsorption systems

Project Summary/Abstract In Phase I of this program (STTR), we demonstrated that we could engineer our patented dialysis system enabling blood cleansing with just 2 liters of H20 (dialysate solution) to fit into a rollaboard-sized suitcase. This reduction in form factor is a critical element in commercializing a portable dialysis system to improve patient outcomes via longer dialysis sessions and also improve patient satisfaction/acceptance, freeing them from three visits per week to dialysis centers. The portable dialysis system eliminates urea via a TiO2 photo- activated catalyst that decomposes the urea to CO2 and N2 with 99% efficiency. Our present manufacturing method for the TiO2 catalyst involves a high temperature, high pressure hydrothermal autoclave. Though it produces acceptable catalytic activity, reproducibility is poor and due to the extreme conditions in the autoclave, it will be difficult, maybe impossible, to scale-up and commercialize. We seek funding to develop an ionized gas plasma-based production system for TiO2 catalyst production. Preliminary trials demonstrate that we can produce high activity TiO2 catalyst surfaces in reasonable time periods. This SBIR application focused on the commercialization of our kidney dialysis system, will (1) scale up the plasma production of the TiO2 catalyst, (2) explore chemical doping using carbon, nitrogen, fluorine, phosphorous, silver, gold and platinum, and (3) demonstrate that our new catalyst surfaces are durable, have good catalytic activity and do not produce undesirable side-products.