Production of Sustainable Hydrogen and Carbon for the Metallurgical Industry

Hydrogen will presumably become an important substitute for carbon as a reductant in the metallurgical industry for processes such as steel production. However, the challenge to supply enough CO2-free hydrogen for metallurgical processes has not been resolved yet. This paper reviews different production technologies for hydrogen and their advantages and drawbacks. Additionally, it will highlight the development of plasma technology to produce hydrogen and carbon black which has been taking place at SINTEF during the last 30 years.

Update in Development and Deployment of Advanced Pulsed Plasma Drilling Technology

Current drilling methods may only achieve relatively low penetration rates in hard formations found in deep wellbores. The relatively high wear rates of drill bits used in such applications can cause the overall economy of deep drilling to be non-feasible. Therefore, a step change is necessary for such formations. This paper presents update in development of the pulsed plasma drilling technology which allows controlled thermo-mechanical rock breakage efficient mainly for hard rock formations. Pulsed plasma drilling technology does not melt rock but uses very short high energy pulses with high frequency which suddenly increase rock surface temperature and, thus, disintegrate its surface. Since the process is very swift, there is not enough time for creation of melt, which is viscous, difficult to remove and may act as a prevention for further penetration. Based on extensive experimental work done on 23 rock types we identified working windows for all of them. Based on this work, there is an "overlap window" where keeping the same parameters should enable drilling through any rock type. The development team performed 1500+ various tests of pulsed plasma technology. During these tests we focused on qualitative parameters like efficiency of the process, sustainability of the process, etc. Quantitative parameters were not decisive when trying to make the process work in various operational cases. In total, we've run hundreds of testing hours of the technology. Now the team focus on quantitative parameters with the milestone of deepening the existing geothermal wellbores of other entities in 2023 to demonstrate the PLASMABIT technology at great depths. The system of this technology is composed of three main parts: PLASMABIT tool (Bottom Hole Assembly - BHA)Transfer line delivering fluid and power into PLASMABIT BHASurface equipment including rig, fluid and waste management, etc. PLASMABIT BHA which is the major innovation is composed of the following modules which are under development within dedicated development programme: Pulse plasma drilling head disintegrating rockFluid and power distribution moduleControl and electronics moduleLogging moduleTwo tractoring modules securing movement and anchoringActive and passive cooling modules maintaining temperature of BHATransfer line connector For the commercial application we intend to combine conventional drilling technology with plasma in the following way: Conventional technology would be used for initial hundreds/thousands of feet to overcome sedimentary/soft rock formations where it achieves competitive Rate of Penetration (ROP). Then, in deeper/hotter/harder formations we intend to apply plasma technology where it is much more efficient than conventional technology. Based on this, we intend to use hybrid rig combining rotary drilling and coiled tubing operations.

Plasma and photon technologies against bio-factors, dangerous to human being

Possible plasma and photonic methods and devices for monitoring and preventing dangerous infections and human diseases are presented. In experiments with different types of atmospheric pressure discharges in different gases, the significant bactericidal effect was found. The prototype of device based on the method of absorption spectroscopy for detecting human diseases by biomarkers in the exhaled air has been proposed and tested. The importance of the plasma technology of deposition of coatings by magnetron sputtering for the creation of anti-covid masks and high-quality optics (mirrors) for photon monitoring devices is emphasized.