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

农业中使用动物粪便和粪便造成的氨（NH3）损失是一个引起环境关注和宝贵资源损失的原因。如果能最大限度地减少NH3的损失，就能解决这些挑战，NH3中的氮可以作为作物可再生肥料的宝贵来源。随着天然气价格不断上涨，直接影响化肥价格，迫切需要替代解决方案。该项目及时解决了这一挑战，因为它需要使用等离子体技术处理空气并将其转化为活性N物质，如一氧化氮（NO），并创造一个酸性环境，以最大限度地减少NH3的损失。该项目的目的是评估等离子体与动物浆或消化液相互作用的详细化学性质，以及当将其作为肥料施用于土壤时对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.