| Atmospheric Sliding Arc Plasmas for the Sustainable Production of Ammonia and Hydrogen (ARCPLAS) |
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Project US-1380977 funded by: 01-01-2021 / 31-12-2022 Principal Investigator Ana María Gómez Ramírez / José Cotrino Bautista Funding Organization: Junta de Andalucía Code: US-1380977 Research Team: Rafael Álvarez Molina, José Javier Brey Sánchez (Universidad de Loyola), Jesús Cuevas Maraver (US), Alberto Palmero Acebedo, Juan F. Rodríguez Archilla (US) |
The project “Atmospheric Sliding Arc Plasmas for the Sustainable Production of Ammonia and Hydrogen”, hereinafter referred to as ARCPLAS, aims to develop chemical gas transformation processes using atmospheric plasma technologies that employ electricity as a direct energy vector. Specifically, the goal is to develop a Sliding Arc Atmospheric Plasma (SAAP) reactor to drive two processes of significant industrial and environmental impact: ammonia (NH₃) synthesis and hydrogen (H₂) production. Ammonia is the primary substance used in fertilizers for agriculture, and its demand is rising in line with global food needs. Regarding hydrogen, it is well known that the path toward a hydrogen-based economy represents one of the 21st century’s major challenges.
In its first stage, ARCPLAS proposes to develop the SAAP technology through the design, construction, modeling, and commissioning of a sliding arc reactor. The complexity of the fundamental processes involved in such reactors will require a detailed study of their electrical response and the mass and charge transport phenomena, as well as a comprehensive characterization and plasma diagnostics based on parameters such as gas flow, interactions between excited species, residence time, chemical characteristics of the gases involved, and other basic operating parameters. Both the experimental and theoretical characterization of the reactor—the latter carried out through computational methods—will be essential for its proper operation and optimization of the proposed processes.
In the second stage, the project will focus on studying the reactions for H₂ and NH₃ production, aiming to maximize both chemical yield and the reactor’s energy efficiency. Finally, in the last stage of the project, potential modifications to the developed SAAP reactor model will be explored, including the incorporation of piezoelectric materials to induce secondary electron emission phenomena, the modification of electrode surface properties, and adjustments to system geometry, with the ultimate goal of enhancing the performance of the studied processes.