Cold Plasma and the Future of Farming

In recent years, climate change has become a dire threat to our planet. Yet despite this, many industries, such as agriculture, are far from sustainable. Not only does mass-farming deplete the soil of minerals, but the fertilizer that is used to accelerate the growth of plants has an enormous carbon footprint. Every year the production of fertilizers alone produces hundreds of millions of metric tons of carbon dioxide, so scientists are eager to find a green alternative. In recent years, it appears that they have found one.

Cold Plasma is, in many ways, an all-encompassing solution – not only can it be produced in farms, it can also run on 100% renewable energy. Plasma, which is matter that is heated so much that electrons are ripped from atoms, forming an ionized gas, is the fourth state of matter. However, when plasma is made in a moderate-temperature environment and at low pressure, it is called cold plasma. 

Majority of plant fertilizers contain ammonia, a compound produced by nitrogen and is necessary for plant growth, and hydrogen. The process of making ammonia is called the Haber Bosch process. This procedure involves the combination of nitrogen and hydrogen under high pressure and temperatures. The invention of the process by Fritz Haber and its later enhancement by Carl Bosch have revolutionized the synthesis of ammonia, and have made the large scale production of fertilizer possible. Yet every year, millions of metric tons of carbon are released into the atmosphere by this process. So because of the horrible effect which the Haber Bosch process has on the environment, cold plasma could revolutionize the agricultural industry.

A question many people may ask is: what is cold plasma, and is it common enough to be used in vast amounts for industrial scale farming? Well it turns out that 99.9% of the known universe is made of plasma, making it the most abundant state of matter. In addition to that, the process of making cold plasma on a farm is quite simple. 

A physicist by the name of Stephan Reuter has been working on using plasma as an alternative to ammonia. Hissolution, known as the Mirabel greenhouse project, involves sending an electric current produced sustainably through a gas, preferably just air. This creates a mixture of neutral and charged particles, such as electrons and ions. These electrons and ions can then synthesize reactive species of nitrogen and oxygen. Reactive species are particles that are ready to react with other molecules. In addition to that, they are available biologically to plants. After this, the water for the plants will be infused with the cold plasma. The water and plasma mixture will then be distributed to the plants.

It may seem absurd that plasma can do anything to stimulate plant growth, but it turns out that it has an immense effect. Research has been done by biochemist Alexander Volkov of Oakwood University, and the results were astonishing. In his experiment, he put the seeds from a bush bean called Phaseolus vulgaris on a plasma ball for one minute and then incubated them for 7 hours in water. Volkov also incubated seeds that had not been treated with plasma for 7 hours in water. Two days later, he measured the radicles of the seeds, which is a root protrusion of a seed that makes it a seedling, and found that the seeds treated with plasma grew 50% more than the untreated seeds. In addition, multiple studies from China and Romania have reported that plasma has greatly increased the growth of soybeans, radishes, and sprouts. Also, scientists from Japan have found that rice paddies treated with plasma infused water had a 15% greater yield than untreated fields.

While it may not have taken off yet, cold plasma could very possibly be an extremely effective and green fertilizer for plants. As numerous experiments have shown, cold plasma can cause a dramatic increase in plant growth, while being 100% renewable. It is uncertain whether or not the agricultural industry’s main fertilizer will be cold plasma, but it is one of the most promising environmentally friendly fertilizers. In the near future, Cold Plasma could become a key component of sustainable agriculture.

Works cited:

Ornes, S. (2021, September 8). Cold plasma could transform the sustainable farms of the future. Science News Magazine. https://www.sciencenews.org/article/cold-plasma-agriculture-sustainable-farms-fertilizer

The Editors of Encyclopedia Britannica. (2022). Haber-Bosch process. In Encyclopedia Britannica.

What is plasma? (2004). In The Fourth State of Matter. IOP Publishing Ltd.