Ever thought about why lightning happens ? It ’s one of the ways Mother Nature nourish plants , trees and timberland . The Eindhoven - based company VitalFluid has mimic that process . By simulating the consequence of one of these lightning bolts , it is now potential to fertilize nursery crop in a sustainable way . The method acting could also be used for harvest auspices in the near future . An program for treating burns and skin diseases is still in a tryout phase .
CEO Paul Leenders founded the caller VitalFluid in 2014 out of his former troupe in response to a project with TU / e , Wageningen University & Research , Radboudumc , and several companies from Nijmegen , the Netherlands .
Disinfectant propertiesThe hypothesis behind VitalFluid ’s app program is not excessively complicated . Using electricity , the motorcar institute ambient breeze into a plasma phase , the fourth state of assemblage ( solid , liquid , gas , blood plasma ) . Ambient tune is compose of 20 percent atomic number 8 and 80 per centum nitrogen . Those parcel of oxygen and nitrogen become responsive and then dissolve into the water . As a result , this urine temporarily learn disinfectant belongings . This issue vanish after about 20 minutes . What remains is weewee that moderate nitrate , which is the most of import nutrient for plants and harvest to grow .
“ That unconscious process is taken step - by - step from nature , ” Leenders emphasizes its cradle to cradle design . “ A literal ‘ nature - ground unconscious process ’ ; a ‘ apery ’ of a electrical storm . Because on the dot the same thing happens in a electrical storm . When lightning strikes -and it does so about 8 million fourth dimension a day – the air around that lightning bolt also get into a plasma phase . It is one of nature ’s method of fixating nitrogen . Ten percentage of all fixated atomic number 7 on world take place through lightning . So , that represents a pregnant part . This is how nature fertilize plants , crops , and timber with nitrogen . It ’s a really of import born fertiliser . We have managed to capture that appendage in a nuclear reactor . ”
Bundling of processesThe process can be on the nose contain in the VitalFluid nuclear reactor which means that more or less O or atomic number 7 can be tot up to the water as needed . However , a enceinte deal of research was ask in guild to succeed . This is because the whole concept is a compounding of various electrophysical and chemical substance process . One of the main research efforts was to find the right kind of controller equipment . “ It was quite a challenge to get that cognitive operation right . That ’s also where our know - how is at the present moment . ”
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