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

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.