High Pressure Inductively Coupled Plasma Technology: From Space to Material processing

The substantial gas heating makes the high-pressure inductively coupled plasma attractive forseveral industrial applications including materials processing for the spheroidization andsynthesis of nanopowders. These plasma systems have also found applications to simulateatmospheric re-entry of hypersonic vehicles, and testing and development of aerospacematerials.At the ANU, we are developing a new dedicated material processing system that will be ableto treat various powders. One specific current application that we aim to demonstrate isefficient reduction of iron ore using hydrogen plasma. If successful, the plasma-basedreduction process could significantly decrease the amount of carbon dioxide being producedin the steel industry.