Abstract
We developed Mixed Matrix Membrane Adsorbers (MMMAs) formed by cellulose acetate and various sorbent particles (activated carbon, zeolites ZSM-5 and clinoptilolite) for the removal of urea, creatinine and uric acid from aqueous solutions, to be used in the regeneration of spent dialysate water from Hemodialysis (HD). This process would allow reducing the disproportionate amount of water consumed and permits the development of closed-loop HD devices, such as wearable artificial kidneys. The strategy of MMMAs is to combine the high permeability of porous membranes with the toxin-capturing ability of embedded particles. The water permeability of the MMMAs ranges between 600 and 1500 L/(h m2 bar). The adsorption of urea, the limiting toxin, can be improved of about nine times with respect to the pure cellulose acetate membrane. Flow experiments demonstrate the feasibility of the process in a real HD therapy session.
Highlights
IntroductionReducing the water consumed in the HD process would be an important step for reaching the UN sustainable development goals
We developed Mixed Matrix Membrane Adsorbers (MMMAs) formed by cellulose acetate and various sorbent particles for the removal of urea, creatinine and uric acid from aqueous solutions, to be used in the regeneration of spent dialysate water from Hemodialysis (HD)
MMMAs obtained by dispersing ZUF, ZSM-5 and Activated Carbon (AC) in cellulose acetate were successfully fabricated via phase inversion and tested to evaluate their uremic toxin removal capacity
Summary
Reducing the water consumed in the HD process would be an important step for reaching the UN sustainable development goals. The optimal solution would be to purify the spent dialysate and recirculate it through the dialysate side of the HD, making the process circular and allowing a reduction the volume of water involved as to enable home dialysis devices such as Wearable Artificial Kidneys (WAK). The development of WAK would reduce the issues associated to the discontinuous hospital treatment of patients, such as hypertension, heart disease, mortality, low life quality. For the development of a small device like WAK, it is essential to regenerate efficiently the dialysate from patients in a closed-loop system, allowing to reduce the volume of dialysate to below 0.5 L [9]
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