Patent ID: 7909788

Claim:
A process for removing carbon dioxide from the whole blood of a patient, comprising: a) providing blood containing a base amount of carbon dioxide from a patient to a photolytic device wherein the photolytic device comprises: an inlet for receiving blood from a patient and transporting the blood to a photolytic cell; a photolytic cell having a light transparent substrate and a photo-reactive surface, said photo-reactive surface comprising (i) a layer of a light activated photolytic catalyst and (ii) an electrically conductive layer, wherein said photo-reactive surface has the ability to release hydrogen ions from water in the blood upon light activation; a light source for providing light photons to said light transparent substrate of the photolytic cell and activating said photolytic catalyst to initiate a series of chemical reactions that result in hydrogen ion generation by the photo-reactive surface of the photolytic cell; a gas sorption device for capturing carbon dioxide released from the blood; and an outlet for transporting the blood out of said photolytic cell; b) activating the light source to release carbon dioxide from the blood to form blood containing a lower amount of carbon dioxide; and c) returning the carbon dioxide poor blood to the patient.