Process for producing green hydrogen and by-products from domestic effluent using bio-catalysis

Abstract

The invention provides a reactor unit that utilises a biocatalytic membrane to remove and break down urea content in waste effluent that that flows into the reactor unit. The biocatalytic membrane is

Claims

1. A reactor unit, as shown in Figure 1, that utilises membranes composed of graphene oxide, reverse osmosis membranes and urease-group enzymes (as weii as currently undeveloped synthetic enzymes) within its structure to allow the process of bio-catalysis to produce hydrogen and other useful byproducts (such as ammonia, nitrogen, oxygen and carbon black, depending on the enzmes used) via biochemical reactions with urea.

2. The design of the biocatalytic semi-permeable membrane,as shown in Figure 2, that is utilised within the reactor unit according to Claim 1, and is comprised of graphene oxide, reverse osmosis membranes and an enzyme coating that comprises urease-group enzymes and currently undeveloped synthetic enzymes.IntellectualPropertyOfficeApplication GB2501499.4Search report under Section 17 of the Patents Act 1977Date search completed: 07 August 2025Claims searched: 1-2International classificationSubclass and subgroup Valid from B01D61 / 08 01 / 01 / 2006 B01D69 / 12 01 / 01 / 2006 B01D71 / 02 01 / 01 / 2006 C02F1 / 44 01 / 01 / 2023 C12P3 / 00 01 / 01 / 2006Field of searchWorldwide search of patent documents classified in the following areas of the IPC:B01D, C02F, C12M, C12PDatabases used in the preparation of this search report:SEARCH-NPL; SEARCH-PATENTDocuments considered to be relevantPatent literatureCategory Relevant Document of relevanceclaimsIntellectual Property Office is an operating name of the Patent Officewww.gov.uk / ipoX 1 and 2 US 2018 / 0021499 A1 (NATAN), See especially paragraphs [0024], [0041], [0052] &[0054] A - CN 105833743 A (TSINGHUA), See whole document A - CN 108939929 A (TSINGHUA), See whole document A - CN 103194491 A (BEIJING UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY), See whole document Non-patent literature Category Relevant claims Document of relevance A - Water Research X, Vol. 22, 12 / 01 / 2024, Seung-Ju Choi et al, “Removal of urea in ultrapure water system by urease-coated reverse osmosis membrane”, 100211, see whole documentCategoriesLetter or symbolDescriptionX Document indicating lack of novelty or inventive step.Y Document indicating lack of inventive step, if combined with anotherdocument of the same category.& Member of the same patent family.Letter or symbol Description A Document indicating technological background. P Document published on or after the priority date but before the fling date of the present application. E Earlier application published on or after the filing date of the present application.

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