Non-equilibrium, or low-energy, or non-thermal plasma has a wide range of uses, and the researchers at Drexel’s Plasma Institute are developing its applications for fuel conversion, production of syngas and liquid fuel from biomass, waste and other carbonaceous feedstocks, chemical synthesis and catalysis, and water treatment, among others. The energy conversion applications are based on exothermic reactions in which plasma acts as a catalyst and requires only a minute amount of energy to sustain the reaction. This makes these plasma applications highly energy-efficient. 

Specifically, Drexel plasma technologies include reactors and processes for: 

- Emissions-free energy generation. Drexel holds broad patents protecting applications of non-equilibrium plasma for generating energy from carbonaceous feedstock without carbon dioxide emissions. In this process carbon is captured in the form of suboxides, partial oxides of carbon, having a form of oily liquid or solids that is equivalent to humus and can be used as fertilizer. 

-Reactors and methods for production of liquid fuels from waste, coal, tar sands, biomass, heavy oil and other carbonaceous feedstocks. Drexel holds a number of US patents and patent applications protecting reactors and their uses for conversion of a broad range of carbonaceous feedstocks into synthesis gas, or syngas, which is a mixture of carbon monoxide and hydrogen. Nearly any carbon-rich feedstock (containing carbon, hydrocarbons or carbohydrates) such as low grade coal, oil, biomass, waste, wood chips, paper, glycerin and similar chemicals, etc. can be converted into syngas with very high efficiency and energy cost of 1%-3% of the energy content of the feedstock. The resulting syngas can be easily converted into a liquid fuel using Fischer-Tropsch process, a well-established chemical process for producing liquid hydrocarbons. Similar processes and reactors can be applied to upgrading heavy oil into lighter hydrocarbons suitable for industrial utilization. 

-High power gliding arc plasma systems for industrial applications. These inventions include proprietary combinations of plasma reactors enabling applications of non-equilibrium plasma technologies with scaled-up output power suitable for industrial-scale uses. 

-Production of hydrogen from hydrogen sulfide. Removal of sulfur from oil is an important step in oil refining. It is achieved by the addition of hydrogen to bind sulfur contained in oil to produce hydrogen sulfide, which is then separated from oil products. This requires large quantities of externally supplied hydrogen, which is expensive. The plasma-based process developed at Drexel recovers hydrogen from hydrogen sulfide, thus enabling re-using hydrogen in the sulfur removal process and reducing the consumption of the externally supplied hydrogen. 

-Generation of plasma nano-discharges in liquids. This technology has broad applications ranging from chemical catalysis in liquid phase, including hydrogen sulfide dissociation, chemical deposition with high effectiveness, and fuel conversion to spectroscopic analysis of living cell to micro-surgical applications such as blood coagulations in individual capillaries.