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, around the insulated sleeve, then through the insulated sleeve where it is exposed to an electric arc formed between the anode and cathode. The fluid and gases then flow out of an outlet of the chamber and through a baffle that extracts the gases from the fluid so that the fluid is returned for repeated exposure to the electric arc.

An apparatus and a process for modifying the surface energy of particles using a reactive gas or reactive energetic species generated in an excited and/or unstable gas stream is provided. The apparatus and process incorporates a process container, a portion of which is movable and having a shape in which the particles are tumbled during exposure to the energetic species. The resulting surface treatment allows the energy modified particles to be more easily dispersed in a liquid medium with a reduction in the occurrence of particle agglomeration or flocculation.

A method of processing a reaction product generated from a plasma-based reactive process includes: supplying a first electromagnetic energy to a flowing primary gaseous feed material, such that at least a fraction of the flowing primary gaseous feed material is excited by the supplied first electromagnetic energy into a first plasma within a first plasma zone, and such that at least a fraction of the flowing primary gaseous feed material is converted to a first plasma zone-conditioned product while flowing through the first plasma and the first plasma zone-conditioned product is flowed to a downstream reaction zone. A second gaseous material is then introduced to the downstream reaction zone. The first plasma zone-conditioned product is contacted with the second gaseous material within the downstream reaction zone.

Systems and methods for producing nitrates, nitric acid, salts thereof, or a mixture thereof are disclosed. The systems may include a feed conduit configured for receiving a feed stream comprising molecular oxygen and molecular nitrogen; an inlet conduit configured for receiving an inlet stream; a plasma reactor fluidically coupled to the inlet conduit, the plasma reactor fluidically coupled to a reactor-outlet conduit configured for receiving the reactor-outlet stream, the plasma reactor configured to produce oxidized nitrogen species; and an absorber fluidically coupled to the reactor-outlet conduit, the absorber configured to receive the reactor outlet stream and to produce nitrates, nitrites, nitric acid, salts thereof, or a mixture thereof from the reactor outlet stream. A recycle conduit may be fluidically coupled to the absorber and the inlet conduit, wherein the recycle conduit is configured to receive the gas-phase stream from the absorber and provide the gas-phase stream to the inlet conduit.

A method for serial and contemporaneous synthesis of disparate deoxy-ribonucleic acid (DNA) strands in an array of wells defined within a substrate. Each well in the array of wells contains a precursor nucleotide chain. A first subset of wells of the array of wells is designated not to receive a nucleotide of a specified nucleobase type and the first subset of wells is closed. A solution of a binding reaction enzyme and nucleotides of the specified nucleobase type bound with a corresponding chemical blocker is flowed over the array of wells. Nucleotides of the specified nucleobase type are received in each of a second subset of wells of the array of wells that are open and designated to receive the nucleotide of the specified nucleobase type. Received nucleotides of the specified nucleobase type are bound with assistance of the binding reaction enzyme to corresponding precursor nucleotide chains in the second subset of wells.

There is provided a thermal reactor (100) comprising: a vessel (101), said vessel comprising: a gas inlet (102), an outlet (103), a gas permeable cage (104) arranged in the vessel (101), and in fluid connection to the gas inlet (102), wherein the vessel (101) and the cage (104) are provided with a mutual gas outlet (103), and temperature generating means (105:105) arranged to create a thermal reaction zone (106) within the cage (104), wherein the cage (104) is provided with holes (107), and wherein a first subset of the holes (107) is arranged along at least a portion of a first circumferential surface (110) of the cage (104) and a second subset of the holes (107) is arranged along at least a portion of a second circumferential surface (111) of the cage (104), wherein the first (110) and second (111) circumferential surfaces are offset and non-parallel, and the first subset of holes (107) and the second subset of holes (107) are mutually distinct.

Systems and methods configured to produce electrical discharges in compositions, such as those, for example, configured to produce electrical discharges in compositions that comprise mixtures of materials, such as a mixture of a material having a high dielectric constant and a material having a low dielectric constant (e.g., a composition of a liquid having a high dielectric constant and a liquid having a low dielectric constant, a composition of a solid having a high dielectric constant and a liquid having a low dielectric constant, and similar compositions), and further systems and methods configured to produce materials, such as through material modification and/or material synthesis, in part, resulting from producing electrical discharges in compositions.

Carbonaceous material and/or hydrogen may be generated using systems and methods provided herein.

The current invention relates to a reactor module for converting chemical compounds into materials, gases or energy, wherein the reactor module is suitable for axial stacking, comprising: one or more reaction chambers, one or more exhaust channels, and one or more flow channels for conducting a flow of reactant gas comprising chemical compounds, wherein, said flow channel is connected to one or more reaction chambers by a tangential channel, wherein said tangential channel is connected to the reaction chamber tangentially to its circular cross-section, and wherein said tangential channel is suitable for directing the flow of reactant gas or part of the flow of reactant gas into the reaction chamber. The invention also relates to a reactor stack comprising two or more aforementioned reactor modules axially stacked. The invention also relates to the use of aforementioned module or a stack of modules for gas conversion.

The present invention relates to the corona discharge-induced cracking of hydrogen-containing gas into molecular hydrogen and at least one by-product, or the production of molecular hydrogen and at least one by-product, or the production of downstream products from the molecular hydrogen and/or the at least one by-product. To this end, hydrogen-containing gas is fed via a gas supply line into a gas-tight reaction chamber with exactly one plasma electrode. The gas-tight reaction chamber is enclosed by a wall that is designed to electrically insulate the plasma electrode from an outside of the wall. The plasma electrode is connected to a high-frequency generator that provides high-frequency alternating voltage and generates corona discharges in the reaction chamber by means of the high-frequency alternating voltage. This results in the cracking of hydrogen-containing gas into molecular hydrogen and at least one by-product. The molecular hydrogen is discharged from the reaction chamber via a gas discharge line. The hydrogen-containing gas can contain, for example, methane, biogas, natural gas, hydrogen sulfide, or cyclohexane, heptane, toluene, gasoline, JP-8, or diesel that have been converted into the gaseous aggregate state.