Study on Pulsed Bubble Discharge Plasma Characterization and Nitrogen Fixation Performance

The Haber-Bosch process is currently the most important artificial nitrogen fixation (NF) method. However, its strict reaction conditions and the use of fossil fuels in the hydrogen production process consume a large amount of energy, resulting in huge carbon emissions. Plasma nitrogen fixation has the advantages of mild reaction conditions, low energy consumption, environmental friendliness and low raw material costs. In this study, a rod-rod electrode bubble discharge plasma device with a separator was designed. The influence of various parameters on the NF performance of the discharge plasma was investigated by changing conditions such as the amplitude of the pulse voltage, the discharge treatment time, and the gas flow rate. The experimental results show that NO3− and NO2− were the main products in the NF process of pulse bubble discharge plasma. The increase of pulse voltage amplitude promotes the synthesis of nitrate nitrogen. There is a critical value for the gas flow rate, about 0.6 L/min. Below this value, an increase in the gas flow rate can raise the concentration of the product. When the gas flow rate exceeds this critical value, the concentration of the product decreases with the increase of gas flow rate. In addition, the extension of the discharge treatment time will gradually increase the energy consumption for NF. The research results prove the feasibility of plasma for distributed miniaturized NF.