A system and method for cleaning sulfur and other pollutants from bunker oil to be used for fuel in large cargo ships is described. Preferably, the system includes two or more stages having a mixer to create an emulsion of oil and water. One or more treatment chemicals are added to the water before it is mixed with the oil in order to assist in separating the sulfur from the oil and freeing it up so that it can combine with various other molecules present in the water or be dissolved in the water. The emulsion may pass through a microcavitation chamber as well as an electrolysis reactor chamber in order to further clean the fuel oil by removing additional sulfur content. The clean fuel is sent to a fuel service tank for use in a diesel engine combustion cycle.

A method for bonding a fluid to a substance includes filling a first pressure vessel with the fluid and pressurizing the first pressure vessel to a first pressure. The fluid is the circulated through an electric arc formed within the first pressure vessel, thereby creating a treated fluid. Within a second pressure vessel, the substance is exposed to a magnetic field, thereby forming a polarized substance. The treated fluid and polarized substance are combined under a second pressure within a third pressure vessel, thereby exposing the treated fluid to the polarized substance at a pressure sufficient to achieve a bond.

The present disclosure provides a liquid treatment device and a liquid treatment method each capable of efficiently generating plasma and treating a liquid in a short time period. A liquid treatment device according to the present disclosure includes a first electrode, a second electrode disposed in a liquid, an insulator disposed surrounding the first electrode through a space, the insulator having an opening portion at a position in contact with the liquid, and a power supply that applies an AC voltage or a pulse voltage between the first electrode and the second electrode.

Methods of processing particulate carbon material, such as graphic particles or agglomerates of carbon nanoparticles such as CNTs are provided. The starting material is agitated in a treatment vessel in the presence of low-pressure (glow) plasma generated between electrodes. The material is agitated in the presence of conductive contact bodies such as metal balls, on the surface of which plasma glow is present and amongst which the material to be treated moves. The methods effectively deagglomerate nanoparticles, and exfoliate graphitic material to produce very thin graphitic sheets showing graphene-type characteristics. The resulting nanomaterials used by dispersal in composite materials, e.g. conductive polymeric composites for electric or electronic articles and devices. The particle surfaces can be functionalized by choosing appropriate gas in which to form the plasma.

Methods of making fuel are described herein. A method may include providing a first working fluid, a second working fluid, and a third working fluid. The method may also include exposing the first working fluid to a first high voltage electric field to produce a first plasma, exposing the second working fluid to a second high voltage electric field to produce a second plasma, and exposing the third working fluid to a third high voltage electric field to produce a third plasma. The method may also include providing and contacting a carbon-based feedstock with the third plasma, the second plasma, and the first plasma within a processing chamber to form a mixture, cooling the mixture using a heat exchange device to form a cooled mixture, and contacting the cooled mixture with a catalyst to form a fuel.

The present invention concerns a reactor for the conversion of carbon dioxide or carbon monoxide into hydrocarbon and/or alcohol comprising a support made from an electrically and thermally conductive material, forming the wall or walls of at least one longitudinal channel that passes through the support and also acting as the cathode of the reactor, at least one wire electrode forming an anode of the reactor, and extending within each longitudinal channel, and being arranged at a distance from the wall or walls of the longitudinal channel, each wire electrode optionally being covered with an electrically insulating layer along the part of the wire electrode extending within the longitudinal channel, a catalyst capable of catalysing a conversion reaction for the conversion of carbon dioxide or carbon monoxide into hydrocarbon and/or alcohol, the catalyst being situated between the wire electrode and the wall or walls of each longitudinal channel.

A method and apparatus for making carbon black having increased surface area, reduced grit and/or reduced extract levels. A plasma gas is flowed into a plasma forming region to form a plasma. The plasma then flows through a throat region which is narrower than the plasma forming section, which is connected to a separate carbon black forming region. This causes the plasma to accelerate and become turbulent prior to the exit point in the throat region. The carbon black forming feedstock is injected into the turbulence created by the throat region at a point above, at or near the exit point, resulting in the formation of a carbon black in the separate carbon black forming region. The throat region and/or injector region can be cooled, e.g., water plasma gas cooled.

A system and method for use in synthesis and promoting interactions of chiral molecules. The system can include: a container configured for containing fluid mixture comprising one or more reactant molecules and at least one surface comprising ferromagnetic or paramagnetic material located to be in at least partial contact with reactants in said container. The ferromagnetic of paramagnetic material can be magnetizable with magnetization direction perpendicular to said at least one surface, thereby providing chiral selective synthesis from said one or more reactant molecules. The technique can enable selective interactions of enantiomers of selected handedness of chiral molecules or formation of selected enantiomers from achiral molecule reactants.

Disclosed herein is a method and device for production of a new long-term storage-stable allotropic modification of oxygen, tetraoxygen O.sub.4, using a combination of known chemical reactions into one technological sequence, including chemical interaction of negative and positive oxidation state oxygen compounds.

The method involves production of dioxygen difluoride by oxidation of molecular oxygen with fluorine, followed by the reaction of dioxygen difluoride with alkali metal peroxide, forming tetraoxygen O.sub.4.

Tetraoxygen is stable in its liquid state up to a temperature of +40° C. and can be used for the oxidation of rocket fuel, long-term compact storage of oxygen, and many other purposes.

A method for producing plasmonic nanomaterials that are catalytically or photocatalytically active by fabricating plasmonic nanostructures on substrates using electrodeposition into a nano-template structure and forming a plurality of nanorods in an array, wherein the nanorods are made from materials chosen from the group consisting of materials that are plasmonic and/or catalytic, and materials that are catalytically activated by depositing pure elemental metals, alloys, or alternating layers of different metals or alloys, and producing catalytic plasmonic nanomaterials. Catalytic plasmonic nanomaterials made from the above method. An optical reactor device that utilizes catalytic nanomaterials for photocatalytic synthesis of methanol or ammonia. A method of photocatalytic synthesis of methanol and ammonia by using catalytic plasmonic nanomaterial to convert CO.sub.2 and H.sub.2 to methanol and N.sub.2 and H.sub.2 to ammonia using optical power. A hybrid plasma-plasmonic reactor for the utilization of CO.sub.2 and CH.sub.4 to produce methanol, ethylene, and acetic acid.