The adsorption and mass transfer characteristics of creatinine on activated carbon were investigated. The external mass transfer coefficient of creatinine K_f was found to be proportional to 0.16th power of superficial velocity in the activated carbon packed bed and inversely proportional to 0.58th power of particle diameter. The experiment showed that creatinine was effectively removed from blood when activated carbon was used in a simulated artificial kidney system.
With the correlation on K_f, the amounts of activated carbon required to lower blood creatinine to a given level comparable to that without the adsorbent were obtained for dialysate volumes and for superficial velocities in the packed bed through the computer simulation using two compartment body model. The result showed that the volume of dialysate could be reduced substantially by use of activated carbon and the adsorbent capacity, particle diameter of activated carbon and superficial velocity in the packed bed were important parameters.