This project is made possible in part by a contribution from the National Growth Fund program NXTGEN HIGHTECH.
The aim of this project is to develop, scale up and deploy plasma technology for sustainable food production. The ambition is to create a central position for the Netherlands in this key technology.
Plasma technology can contribute to a number of challenges in food production.
Plasma technology enables applications in crop protection, nitrogen fixation, hygienisation, disinfection, air purification and valorization of manure. The general effect has now been demonstrated and the next step is to develop large-scale applications in Food and Agri. This project aims to accelerate development and implementation in (energy) efficiency, upscaling, cost optimization, and embedding plasma technology in regulations.
The NXTGEN HIGHTECH program offers solutions for the future of the Netherlands in six essential application areas. Plasma4Agrifood contributes to the general NXTGEN HIGHTECH program, the Innovation package High-tech Soil-bound agriculture and the Innovation package Greenhouse horticulture from the focus and ambition of using disruptive autonomous technology for greening and making food production more sustainable. The use of plasma technology can bring about a transformation in sustainable food production in close cooperation and integration with precision agriculture applications and autonomous hands-free working in field crops and livestock farming.
This project is made possible in part by a contribution from the National Growth Fund program NXTGEN HIGHTECH. With over 330 partners, in more than 60 projects and in six essential domains, this program will make a significant contribution to the structural and sustainable economic growth in the Netherlands and offer solutions for the major societal challenges in the areas of energy transition, health, safety and food.
Including the contribution of € 450 million from the National Growth Fund, NXTGEN HIGHTECH will invest approximately € 1 billion until 2030. In doing so, we will realize an internationally leading ecosystem for high-tech equipment in the Netherlands, which will rank among the top three in Europe at least and make an additional contribution to Dutch GNP of € 6 to 11 billion per year. We will develop a new generation of high-tech equipment for the future generation of Dutch people: our children. For more information, also visit www.nxtgenhightech.nl.
This project is made possible in part by a contribution from the National Growth Fund program NXTGEN HIGHTECH. We will introduce all participants of the project below.
VitalFluid is a high-tech company specialized in plasma technology. The company develops systems for the production of plasma activated water and its applications in close cooperation with end users. These applications focus on stimulating plant health for the purpose of reducing the use of chemical crop protection agents and the sustainable fixating of nitrogen as a food nutrient. VitalFluid has in-depth knowledge of plasma technology and its applications, and will further develop this technology within the project and have it validated in practice within various demonstration projects.
Agrifirm is leading in creating customer results and developing market sevelopments to achieve a “responsible food chain” with good income for grower/customer/farmer.
In the near future Agrifirm will offer growers outcome-oriented cultivation advice at crop level, supported by a sustainability program, through successful implementation of and knowledge development about the total crop approach in the organization and at the customer. Results of the most important crops made transparent with data. A substantial contribution to reducing environmental impact in all crops.
Eindhoven University of Technology will conduct fundamental research in the field of plasma technology and smart and sustainable purchasing of electrical energy. The research will focus on: (i) further development of the plasma sources of the various partners with regard to efficiency and optimal operation, (ii) efficiency and process optimization for specific value chains, (iii) energy input optimization (minimization of input costs for electrical energy ), including by looking at Power2X and energy market optimization. (iv) investigate mechanisms for nitrogen fixation with plasmas and optimal process conditions
N2 Agri BV (N2 Applied AS) specializes in plasma technology for various applications, including the processing of slurry and biogas digestate, with the aim of local production of fertilizers and reduction of emissions in livestock farming. The role of N2 Agri BV (N2 Applied AS) in this project is the further development, optimization, testing and independent validation of the technology for applications in the agri-food chain.
Blue Plasma Agro Solutions BV is a technology integrator providing solutions based on cold atmospheric plasma developed for agriculture and horticulture. In this project Blue plasma focus on treating emissions from pig farms, with a focus on ammonia (NH3). This with the aim to be able to treat the emissions in an effective and efficient manner as an alternative for existing methods in a sustainable and circular way. The technology of Blue Plasma is based on cold atmospheric plasma is based on water, air and electricity and can be used as an ‘end of pipe’ solution, and also to clean the air in the farm itself. Blue Plasma will further develop and scale up this technology within the project. As a result Bleu Plasma will help the pig farming sector to take steps and make their processes more sustainable.
