Plasma is an ionised gas created by adding electrical energy to a gas. It produces a hot, highly reactive environment in which chemical reactions take place. Because plasma processes run directly on electricity and can respond quickly to changes in power supply, they offer a way to cut emissions and reliance on fossil feedstocks in the production of basic chemicals. Applications under study include converting CO2 into syngas, producing hydrogen and hydrocarbons, and fixing nitrogen for fertilisers or for plastics such as polyacrylonitrile.

At the PlasmaLab on the Chemelot Campus in Geleen, laboratory tests have converted methane into hydrogen, acetylene and ethylene. First tests at 50 kW scale are already under way. Over the next few years, the spin-out company Thoriant will build and operate a 500 kW pilot plant to test performance at a larger scale.

TNO stresses that many plasma routes are still at research, pilot or demonstration stage. Further work is needed on efficiency, reactor design, scale-up and integration into existing sites. Whether a given route makes sense depends on the product, the feedstock and access to low-carbon electricity, so each application has to be assessed separately. TNO has also published a study on scaling up plasma technology for decarbonising chemical production.

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