Project number
26062
Organization
Kidney ADVANCE Project - NIH/ACABI
Offering
ENGR498-F2025-S2026
Project Goal/Summary: The purpose of this project is to develop an effective system to process used dialysate fluid to allow for its clean up and purification, recycling of water, as well as restoration of dialysate fluid to normal electrolyte balance for reuse. Successful development of this system will benefit hundreds of thousands of patients and lead to great water economy and overall cost savings to the healthcare system.
Project Background: Kidney disease is on the rise with 1 in 7 adults sadly developing chronic kidney disease in the US with 5% progressing to end stage renal disease requiring hemodialysis. Hemodialysis (HD) is the dominant form of blood purification employed for patients with end-stage renal disease. Operationally, present HD systems utilize a hollow fiber kidney system in which blood is perfused thru while dialysate is cross-perfused over and surrounding the fiber bundle allowing for fluid, electrolyte and waste exchange, with equilibration based on the tonicity and ion concentration of the dialysate. Unfortunately, present systems require access to large sources of water and dialysate, are hospital or clinic-based, and non-portable. A given patient uses 300 to 600 liters of water per week in HD which is literally poured down the drain! With 600,000 patients in the U.S. on dialysis weekly this equates to 360 billion liters of water and dialysate wasted per week - dialysate presently is used once and is literally pored down the drain - a terrible loss of water and dialysate. We propose creating a system – “WATER ECONOMY” to recapture dialysate and water, to allow for its reuse. Our overall goal is to develop a system which has applicability to both hospital/clinic system as well as for evolving home portable systems, freeing up the dependence and use of significant water supplies.
Requirements: Step1: Get up to speed - Team will research current approaches to hemodialysis, dialysate composition and potential methods of clean up. Team will be provided with and have the benefit of theory and analysis done by UA Chem Engineering students in the past. Step 2: Design and build purification and recycling means – A. Ion/urea removal - Fabricate a system with columns of activated charcoal, urease, zirconium oxide, and zirconium phosphate to remove ions/urea to defined specs. B. Filtration – Develop a high flow, rapid filtration system to remove particulates, C. Disinfection system – Design a UV disinfection system up to the required FDA standards. Step 3. Design and build Optimized Housing and Recycled Water/Dialysate Containment – Design a best footprint system for a small hospital-based unit as a first step, with a design for a portable unit as well. Teams will be offered visits to present hemodialysis facilities to measure and gain real world dimensions and specs. Step 4: Design testing port – A port for periodic testing with potential on-line sensor incorporation will be added for continual information as to system efficacy and performance. Step 5: A GUI readout and data tracking system – A data display, logging and report generating system will be developed to document run efficiency and quality control. Step 6: Electrolyte “Add back” - Following clean-up of a defined volume of dialysate a rapid assessment via a simple sensor module will be performed allowing for addition of electrolytes (based on loss during cleanup) to reconstitute levels to normal Step 7. Test and verify the efficacy of the system – Effluent output of the system will be tested vs. fresh dialysate and purified water to compare efficacy.
Project Background: Kidney disease is on the rise with 1 in 7 adults sadly developing chronic kidney disease in the US with 5% progressing to end stage renal disease requiring hemodialysis. Hemodialysis (HD) is the dominant form of blood purification employed for patients with end-stage renal disease. Operationally, present HD systems utilize a hollow fiber kidney system in which blood is perfused thru while dialysate is cross-perfused over and surrounding the fiber bundle allowing for fluid, electrolyte and waste exchange, with equilibration based on the tonicity and ion concentration of the dialysate. Unfortunately, present systems require access to large sources of water and dialysate, are hospital or clinic-based, and non-portable. A given patient uses 300 to 600 liters of water per week in HD which is literally poured down the drain! With 600,000 patients in the U.S. on dialysis weekly this equates to 360 billion liters of water and dialysate wasted per week - dialysate presently is used once and is literally pored down the drain - a terrible loss of water and dialysate. We propose creating a system – “WATER ECONOMY” to recapture dialysate and water, to allow for its reuse. Our overall goal is to develop a system which has applicability to both hospital/clinic system as well as for evolving home portable systems, freeing up the dependence and use of significant water supplies.
Requirements: Step1: Get up to speed - Team will research current approaches to hemodialysis, dialysate composition and potential methods of clean up. Team will be provided with and have the benefit of theory and analysis done by UA Chem Engineering students in the past. Step 2: Design and build purification and recycling means – A. Ion/urea removal - Fabricate a system with columns of activated charcoal, urease, zirconium oxide, and zirconium phosphate to remove ions/urea to defined specs. B. Filtration – Develop a high flow, rapid filtration system to remove particulates, C. Disinfection system – Design a UV disinfection system up to the required FDA standards. Step 3. Design and build Optimized Housing and Recycled Water/Dialysate Containment – Design a best footprint system for a small hospital-based unit as a first step, with a design for a portable unit as well. Teams will be offered visits to present hemodialysis facilities to measure and gain real world dimensions and specs. Step 4: Design testing port – A port for periodic testing with potential on-line sensor incorporation will be added for continual information as to system efficacy and performance. Step 5: A GUI readout and data tracking system – A data display, logging and report generating system will be developed to document run efficiency and quality control. Step 6: Electrolyte “Add back” - Following clean-up of a defined volume of dialysate a rapid assessment via a simple sensor module will be performed allowing for addition of electrolytes (based on loss during cleanup) to reconstitute levels to normal Step 7. Test and verify the efficacy of the system – Effluent output of the system will be tested vs. fresh dialysate and purified water to compare efficacy.