Low-temperature plasma nitrogen fixation for agricultural applications

使用人造低温等离子体，我们可以通过模仿闪电过程（一种自然的固氮方式）直接固定大气中的氮作为肥料替代品。这迄今尚未被探索，然而，等离子体源提供了许多有吸引力的属性，包括使用环境原料的可再生能源的廉价、便携式操作。因此，关键的优势是可持续性，化工厂基础设施和生产供应链的独立性沿着温室气体排放的减少。该项目将涉及实验和模拟技术的应用，以探索空气等离子体中相关化学活性物质的产生，它们如何触发下游化学和生物过程，以及相关的增强植物生长。国家的最先进的最近开发的诊断分析技术将被应用和进一步发展，以量化等离子体相内的活性物质，以及它们的运输到水和土壤。

Using man-made low-temperature plasmas we can directly fix atmospheric nitrogen as a fertiliser alternative through mimicking lightning processes, a natural means of nitrogen fixation. This has been to date unexplored, however, plasma sources offer many attractive attributes including cheap, portable operation from renewable energy using ambient feed-stocks. Key advantages are thus sustainability, independence of chemical plant infrastructure and production supply chains along with reduced greenhouse gas emissions.This project will involve the application of experimental and simulation techniques to explore the production of relevant chemically reactive species in air plasmas, how they can trigger downstream chemical and biological processes, and associated enhanced plant growth. State-of-the-art recently developed diagnostic analytical techniques will be applied and further developed to quantify reactive species within the plasma phase, and their transport into water and soil.