Transport phenomena in dialysis processes

Hemodialysis is the most frequent renal replacement therapy (RRT) for patients suffering from chronic renal failure. Dialyzer is an external artificial device that can receive patient’s blood and filters toxins out of it by the means of membranes. The present chapter illustrates the basic principles and governing equations related to the transport phenomena occurring in an artificial kidney device. In order to present the organ functionalities to be reproduced by the artificial device, a detailed description of natural kidney and its working principle is reported in the introduction section. The background section presents a classification of different technologies and systems for RRT, while the mathematical models section reports the design equations and a final real case study for regenerative dialysis therapy.