Assessing impact of plasma technology on gaseous nitrogen species and its potential to influence digestate quality as fertilisers in agriculture

在农业中使用动物粪便和沼气造成的氨损失是一个环境问题和宝贵资源的损失。如果NH3的损失能够降到最低，它就可以应对这些挑战，来自NH3的氮可以被用作农作物的宝贵可再生肥料来源。随着直接影响化肥价格的天然气价格不断上涨，迫切需要替代解决方案。该项目适时应对这一挑战，因为它需要使用等离子体技术来处理空气，并将其转化为一氧化氮(NO)等活性氮物种，并创造一个酸性环境，将NH3的损失降至最低。该项目的目的是评估等离子体与动物泥浆或消化液相互作用的详细化学，以及作为肥料应用于土壤时对N物种的影响。

Ammonia (NH3) losses from use of animal slurry and digestate in agriculture is a cause of environmental concern and a loss of valuable resource. If the NH3 loss can be minimised, it can tackle these challenges and the nitrogen from NH3 can be utilised as a valuable source of renewable fertiliser for crops. With escalating price of natural gas, which is directly influencing fertiliser prices, alternative solutions are urgently needed. This project is timely to tackle this challenge as it entails using plasma technology to treat air and convert it into reactive N species such as nitric oxide (NO) and create an acidic environment which minimises losses of NH3. This project aim will be on evaluating the detailed chemistry of plasma interactions with the animal slurry or digestate liquor and its impact on N species when applied to soils as a fertiliser.