K. Strobl, S. Gainey, A. Kumar, A. Kumar
CVD Equipment Corporation,
United States
Keywords: fluid reactor, ECMO, liquid-gas exchange, VACNT, VACNT devices
Summary:
Fluid Reactors in this context are sealed devices where a fluid enters the reactor and is compositionally changed within the reactor by secondary fluid(s). The primary and secondary fluid(s) interact through the asymmetric porous sidewalls of parallel fluid channels with at least one key component of the primary fluid being entrapped by the respective sidewalls. The compositionally changed primary fluid then exits the reactor. We have developed a novel, patent pending, higher efficiency fluid reactor system that is targeted to (1) improve existing extra corporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) products utilized in heart lung machines, (2) enable the use of ECMOs for extended duration blood oxygenation needs, (3) enable the manufacture of ECMO devices that operate on air instead of pure oxygen for special logistically challenged situations, and (4) address other fluid reaction based applications such as dialysis; chemical, pharma and bio material manufacturing; filtration; fluid degasification; fluid gasification; desalination; etc. Traditionally, fluid reactors utilize spiral wound membranes or porous hollow fiber membranes (HFMs). Our novel fluid reactor design utilizes, at its core, a family of novel reactor core elements (RCEs) that inherently have a 5-20X higher active fluid-fluid interaction surface area per given device volume when compared to HFM based fluid reactors. Each of our RCEs used for blood oxygenation contains straight fluid channels surrounded by an open porous cellular network material having a bi-continuous phase structure of vertically aligned carbon nanotubes (c-VACNT™) material. These RCEs are manufactured through a combination of photolithography, chemical vapor deposition (CVD), separation and additional follow-on processing steps. We will discuss results of various types of RCEs related to a range of key simulated fluid reactor applications. We will further demonstrate integration of RCEs in a scalable way to build compact, higher efficiency fluid reactors and compare them to HFM-based technology. In addition, we will outline with a few examples that, with the help of additional auxiliary chemical vapor deposition and/or liquid based coating technologies, the value proposition of our novel fluid reactors can be further extended into a broad range of applications.