Aspects of the present disclosure involve a plasma reactor system that includes a gas-flow-engineered reactor to more efficiently produce fixed nitrogen products. In some instances, the gas-flow-engineered reactor may include a gas vortex-inducing input mechanism and/or a quenching mechanism integrated or otherwise associated with the plasma reactor system.

A system for producing fixed nitrogen products includes a header coupled to one or more plasma torch reactors. The plasma torch reactors receive input gases and generate (e.g., using microwave energy) a plasma and resulting reactive nitrogen species. The reactive nitrogen species oxidize within the header, resulting in a product stream. In certain implementations, the product stream is transported to an absorption unit for conversion into the fixed nitrogen products. Certain implementations include cooling, supplemental fluid, and other systems to vary and enhance production of fixed nitrogen products and operation of the system.

Systems and methods for plasma based synthesis of graphitic materials. The system includes a plasma forming zone configured to generate a plasma from radio-frequency radiation, an interface element configured to transmit the plasma from the plasma forming zone to a reaction zone, and the reaction zone configured to receive the plasma. The reaction zone is further configured to receive feedstock material comprising a carbon containing species, and convert the feedstock material to a product comprising the graphitic materials in presence of the plasma.

A flow-through electric arc system includes a chamber within an insulated sleeve having an anode at one end of the insulated sleeve and a cathode at a distal end of the insulated sleeve. Fluid flows from an inlet of the chamber, through the insulated sleeve where it is exposed to an electric arc formed between the anode and cathode, and then flows out of an outlet of the chamber. By way of increasing the flow rate of the fluid, bi-products that are released from a reaction of the fluid to the electric arc are flushed by the fluid and at least some of the bi-products are precluded from accumulating on either of the anode, cathode, or both.

The present invention provides a method for producing substoichiometric titanium oxide fine particles, in which the degree of oxidation/reduction of substoichiometric titanium oxide fine particles can be adjusted and which can produce high purity nano-sized substoichiometric titanium oxide fine particles by dispersing substoichiometric titanium oxide (TiOx) fine particles, and especially titanium dioxide (TiO.sub.2), in a liquid substance containing a carbon source, adding water so as to form a slurry, forming the slurry into liquid droplets, supplying the liquid droplets to a hot plasma flame that does not contain oxygen, reacting titanium dioxide with carbon in a substance generated by the hot plasma flame so as to produce substoichiometric titanium oxide, and rapidly cooling the produced substoichiometric titanium oxide so as to produce substoichiometric titanium oxide fine particles.

Apparatus and method for plasma synthesis of carbon nanotubes couple a plasma nozzle to a reaction tube/chamber. A process gas comprising a carbon-containing species is supplied to the plasma nozzle. Radio frequency radiation is supplied to the process gas within the plasma nozzle, so as to sustain a plasma within the nozzle in use, and thereby cause cracking of the carbon-containing species. The plasma nozzle is arranged such that an afterglow of the plasma extends into the reaction tube/chamber. The cracked carbon-containing species also pass into the reaction tube/chamber. The cracked carbon-containing species recombine within the afterglow, so as to form carbon nanotubes in the presence of a catalyst.

A process and an apparatus for converting carbon dioxide CO.sub.2 into carbon monoxide CO using hydrocarbons are described. In further embodiments, processes and apparatuses for generating synthesis gas and processes and apparatuses for converting synthesis gas into synthetic functionalised and/or non-functionalised hydrocarbons using CO.sub.2 and hydrocarbons are described. The processes and apparatuses are adapted to convert CO.sub.2 emitted by industrial processes, and thus the amount of carbon dioxide emitted into the atmosphere may be reduced.

Removing GHGs from various industrial and agricultural sources while concurrently generating useful solid and/or gaseous output materials enables an environmentally-clean and scalable approach for permanently dissociating the GHGs. Intra-reactor conditions can be controlled such that the solids produced are useful in advanced materials (e.g., in carbon fibers, in cements and concretes, etc.), and/or controlled in a manner such that the generated gases are useful (e.g., as fuel in hydrogen powered vehicles, in aeronautical and aerospace applications, and in energy storage applications, etc.). Eradicating GHGs (i.e., by dissociating GHGs into constituent carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, sulfur, nitrogen, etc.) is facilitated through use of interconnected arc discharge reactors. Arc discharge reactors involve simple designs that are both energy efficient and highly scalable to virtually any specification. Moreover, the simplicity of arc discharge reactor designs lead to large scale configurations that can be reliably deployed into diverse geographies or environments having diverse operating conditions.

A thermal and non-thermal plasma activated water reactor system is provided that includes a reaction chamber, where the reaction chamber includes a gas inlet, a water inlet, a gas and water outlet, a ground electrode and reaction electrodes, where the water inlet and the water outlet are disposed to form a water vortex in the reaction chamber when water flows there through, where the reaction electrodes include a thermal plasma electrode and a non-thermal plasma electrode, and a plasma activated water reservoir that is disposed to receive the plasma activated water from the reaction chamber and disposed to return the plasma activated water to the reaction chamber.

An apparatus for producing synthesis gas at high capacity is described, wherein particularly fast conversion and operation for a long time without interruption is obtained. The apparatus comprises a reactor (1) having a reactor chamber (2) which comprises at least one first inlet (5) connected to a source of hydrocarbon fluid and at least one outlet (15); further a plasma burner (7) having a burner part (11) which is adapted to produce a plasma; and at least one second inlet (6) connected to a source of CO.sub.2 or H.sub.2O. The reactor chamber (2) defines a flow path from the first inlet (5) to the outlet (15), wherein the burner part is located, with respect to the flow path, between the first inlet (5) for hydrocarbon fluid and the second inlet (6) for CO.sub.2 or H.sub.2O; and wherein the second inlet (6) is located with respect to the flow path such that the second inlet (6) is at a location where between 90% and 95% of the hydrocarbon fluid is thermally decomposed. Further a method for operating an apparatus for producing synthesis gas is described.