NEWfertilizer is generated using non thermal plasma technology to ionize air and bubble it through water creating dissolved nitrates. The only input is air. Electricity is used to generate the plasma field. The final product contains dissolved nitrates in water. The water is only used as a way to apply the nitrates. Organic farming does not allow the use of synthetic fertilizers or pesticides. Synthetic fertilizers are defined as being chemically produced. NEWfertilizer does not use a chemical process to generate its nitrates. I would like to hear people's thoughts. I assume that different countries might have different standards as well.
Taking into account your description of this fertilizer, it sounds like it is Plasma Activated Water (PAW).
In my opinion, the way the nitrates are incorporated into the water cannot be thought as a merely physical process. I think is a physicochemical process that involves a discharge which produces highly reactive species. In the case of atmospheric pressure non-thermal plasmas, driven in ambient air, some of this species can be ozone, nitrogen monoxide, nitric acid, etc. Once the species are solvated into the water, many chemical reactions occur that lead, among other things, to the acidification of the water. Sometimes its pH can turn as low as 3 or 4.
Another thing to take into account is the discharge configuration used to generate the PAW. It is very common in this kind of applications to use Dielectric Barrier Discharges (DBD). The DBD's are generated by isolating the electrodes with a dielectric and applying a high voltage AC or pulsed signal. Depending of the dielectric material and the discharge configuration, it is possible that during the discharge some particles of the dielectric are ejected towards the water due to the action of the plasma. This could lead to contamination of the water if is not treated properly.
To conclude, I think that solvating nitrates into the water using plasma discharges can be can be thought of as physicochemical process. However, I think that, although is a very promising technique because it's potentially clean, it is important to carefully investigate its safety before being applied to the agricultural sector.
Matias Zanini Thank you for the response. I agree with you assessment. We have discussed the concept of plasma activated water and came to a similar conclusion, having water in the plasma field can cause significant issues with the process depending upon the quality of the water. This is why we only move air through the plasma field and then bubble the resulting gas into water. We call this Nitrogen Enriched Water of NEWfetilizer(TM). We are not using a dielectric barrier due to some of the concerns you raised. We are using a proprietary form of gliding arc which has proven be the best in conversion yields. We are not looking for high concentrations since we produce on the farm there is no reason to concentrate and then just dilute it for application. Therefore we do get a slight drop in pH from the extra ions in the water but only a delta of 0.1 to 0.8. We are focused on production rates since that is the way to make the process economical.
We have also been able to stabilize the process and have been operating machines for years with little maintenance.
With this new information, what are your thoughts?
John Ireland I'm glad you found useful my response. I think it is hard to provide a final answer just by reading a forum post. Although, I can see you take many precautions which I think is very important in order to finally apply your product into the agricultural sector.
However, I think it is also very important that the corresponding gubernatorial authorities test the final product before it is commercialized and applied into the crops. Even if the plasma application is not in-situ, there are some toxic species that can be later solvated into the water, like NO, O3 and so on.
As I said, I think this is a promising technique that could lead to a potentially clean and high energy efficient way to incorporate nitrogen into the crops. However, I think food is a very sensitive topic that can affect people's health in a very straightforward manner and because of that should be carefully addressed.
Matias Zanini I agree and thank you again. We are watching out for NO, O3 and even NO2. Both NO and O3 are very reactive so we do not see any in the final product, but there are nitrite ions present and we are looking into ways to reduce them to miniscule levels. But, you point is well taken. Thanks again for the response. Do you have a linked in account that we can connect?
John Ireland Sure! I don't update it very often, but we can connect there if you want.
www.linkedin.com/in/matías-zanini-20371a291
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