The ultimate goal of the program is to develop a safe, reliable electrochemical hypochlorite generator specifically for use in the cleaning and disinfecting of reused dialyzers. Hypochlorites have been widely used by health care facilities for the cleaning of reused dialyzers prior to sterilization with formaldehyde. An electrochemical generator system that produces sodium hypochlorite from salt (NaCl) solution on demand at set concentrations would increase safety, reproducibility and reliability of the reused dialyzer cleaning process. The quantity of generated hypochlorite would be accurately controlled by the electric current of the generator. In Phase I of this program, we successfully demonstrated that a unique electrochemical reactor that could generate hypochlorite on demand from NaCl without the generation of hydrogen. Furthermore, this electrochemically generated sodium hypochlorite, when flushed through a contaminated dialyzer, was shown to effectively restore clearance of urea and creatinine. For the Phase II of this program, we propose to further improve this unique electrochemical hypochlorite generator to precisely control hypochlorite concentration and pH, and integrate it with a commercial reuse machine. Using this automated setup, we propose to characterize the transport properties of high flux dialyzers under conditions of reuse.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK)
Type
Small Business Innovation Research Grants (SBIR) - Phase II (R44)
Project #
2R44DK039278-02A2
Application #
3507373
Study Section
Special Emphasis Panel (SSS (B1))
Project Start
1988-04-01
Project End
1993-06-30
Budget Start
1991-07-01
Budget End
1992-06-30
Support Year
2
Fiscal Year
1991
Total Cost
Indirect Cost
Name
Giner, Inc.
Department
Type
DUNS #
066594979
City
Newton
State
MA
Country
United States
Zip Code
02466