Kom til Livsvitenskapsbygningen
Vi anbefaler kollektiv transport, sykkel eller gange. Det er ingen parkeringsplasser utenfor bygningen. For trikk eller T-bane: Ta til Forskningsparken, gå 1-2 minutter til Livsvitenskapsbygningen. Bygningen har universell utforming.
Om Birkelandsforelesningen
Birkelandsforelesningen er en et årlig arrangement som har blitt holdt siden 1987. Arrangmentet er et samarbeidet mellom Det Norske Videnskaps-Akademi, Universitetet i Oslo og Yara International. Årets introduksjonsforelesning, knyttet til forskning og innovasjon, er i plasmakjemi – knyttet til den fjerde aggregattilstanden.
Språk: Presentasjonen av foredragsholder og foredrag er på engelsk.
Årets introduksjonsforelesning
Foredragsholder: Professor Annemie Bogaerts, Universiteit Antwerpen.
Hovedforelesningen skjer 22. september 2026 i Det Norske Videnskaps-Akademi.
Om Annemie Bogaerts: hennes forskningsaktiviteter omfatter studier av plasma og plasma–overflate-interaksjoner ved hjelp av datamodellering og eksperimenter, for ulike anvendelser, hovedsakelig CO₂-, CH₄- og N₂-konvertering til verdiskapende kjemikalier og drivstoff, plasmamedisin og mikroelektronikk.
Velkommen til introduksjonsforelesningen!
Plasma: a novel tool for green chemistry
"Plasma technology is very promising for green chemistry, or the electrification of chemical reactions, because it operates with electricity and can quickly be switched on/off, so it is very suitable in combination with renewable electricity [1,2].
The performance, however, greatly depends on the type of plasma reactor. Dielectric barrier discharges (DBDs) operate near room temperature, and are suitable for combination with catalysts, for in-plasma catalysis, where the reactive plasma species (radicals and excited molecules) can activate the catalyst, but the underlying mechanisms to reach plasma-catalyst synergy are still far from understood, and moreover, their energy cost for gas conversion applications is quite high.
On the other hand, so-called warm or quasi-thermal plasmas, such as microwave, gliding arc and arc plasmas, operate at much higher temperatures (up to 6000K), so they cannot accommodate catalysts inside the reactor, but catalysts can be thermally activated in post-plasma catalysis. Furthermore, these warm plasmas have much lower energy cost.
Typical applications include CO2 splitting, CH4 conversion into olefins, H2 and valuable carbon, the combined CO2 and CH4 conversion (dry reforming of methane, DRM) for syngas production, CO2 hydrogenation or partial oxidation of CH4 for oxygenates synthesis, N2 fixation into NH3 or NOx for fertilizer production, and NH3 cracking for green H2 formation. In this lecture, I will describe the state-of-the-art of these applications, in terms of performance metrics (conversion and energy cost). Subsequently, I will present several examples from our Plasma Lab for Applications in Sustainability and Medicine – ANTwerp (PLASMANT), both on experiments and modeling, to gain more insights and improve the various applications."
References:
1. Bogaerts, A. Plasma technology for the electrification of chemical reactions.Nature Chem. Eng. 2, 336-340 (2025).
2. Snoeckx, R. & Bogaerts, A. Plasma technology – a novel solution for CO2 conversion? Chem. Soc. Rev. 46, 5805-5863 (2017).