Analysis of the Enzymatic Reaction of Urea to Ammonia

Undergraduate #178
Discipline: Chemistry and Chemical Sciences
Subcategory: Chemistry (not Biochemistry)

Nia Pollard - Howard University

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Urine is an aqueous solution of greater than 95% water, with the remaining constituents, in order of decreasing concentration; urea, chloride, sodium, potassium, creatinine and other dissolved ions, inorganic and organic compounds (proteins, hormones, metabolites) (Boundless Anatomy and Physiology, 2016). The overall goal of this project is to extract the urea from urine in order to convert it to ammonia. The ammonia can then later be converted to ammonium, which can be used as a plant fertilizer. This plant fertilizer would be easier and cheaper, to both make and obtain, than most fertilizers used today. This process will be completed with three separate devices – (1) a membrane, (2) an enzymatic reactor, and (3) a proton donor. The main focus of this paper however, is to analyze the outcome of a specific length and pellet geometry used in the enzymatic reactor. The best outcome would be the most amount of urea converted to ammonia. COMSOL Multiphysics Software was used to analyze this geometry. Although this specific geometry proved to be successful in converting the urea to ammonia, this research is ongoing and much other geometry are being tested for better outcomes.

Funder Acknowledgement(s): This study was supported, in part, by a grant from the National Science Foundation awarded to Lorraine Fleming, Wayne Patterson, and Mohamed Chouikha, Principal and Co-Principal Investigators of the Global Education, Awareness and Research Undergraduate Program (GEAR UP), Howard University, Washington, DC.

Faculty Advisor: Dwayne Bryant, dwayne.bryant@bison.howard.edu

Role: Analyzed the geometries on COMSOL Multiphysics Software.