Nitrogen fixation in an electrode-free microwave plasma

Plasma-based gas conversion has great potential for enabling carbon-free fertiliser production powered by renewable electricity.Sustaining an energy-efficient plasma process without eroding the containment vessel is currently a significant challenge, limiting scaling to higher powers and throughputs.Isolation of the plasma from contact with any solid surfaces is an advantage, which both limits energy loss to the walls and prevents material erosion that could lead to disastrous soil contamination.This paper presents highly energy-efficient nitrogen fixation from air into NOx by microwave plasma, with the plasma filament isolated at the centre of a quartz tube using a vortex gas flow.NOx production is found to scale very efficiently when increasing both gas flow rate and absorbed power.The lowest energy cost recorded of ~2 MJ/mol, for a total NOx production of ~3.8 %, is the lowest reported up to now for atmospheric pressure plasmas.