ENewsletter from MN Nano

Phoenix Solutions' Plasma Technology Enables Full-Scale Production of Nanoparticles

non transfer torch

By Benjamin Tramm

There is nothing small about Phoenix Solutions Company's approach to nanoparticle generation. As the world's largest supplier of commercial thermal plasma systems, PSC's plasma heating technology enables their customers to transition from pilot-scale laboratory production to full-scale production of nanometric particles. Using their modular plasma torch technology, Phoenix Solutions has partnered with the United States Army to develop systems capable of manufacturing massive quantities of nanoparticles.

Their goal? To manufacture ten tons of nanometric particles-per day!

Phoenix Solutions is a privately held family business having its headquarters in Crystal, MN--less than ten miles northwest of downtown Minneapolis. The company was founded in 1952 under the name FluiDyne Engineering Corporation, with a focus on aerospace technology, and particularly wind tunnels. Wind tunnel testing often required heat, and FluiDyne developed expertise in generating that heat using electric arc plasma.

In 1993, FluiDyne sold their wind tunnel business, but maintained their heating system technologies, especially plasma. The company reformed as Phoenix Solutions Company. In 2000, PSC bought Plasma Energy Corporation and has grown to be the largest supplier of plasma technology in the world.

PSC has a test facility located in Hutchinson, MN. The test facility gives PSC the ability to install, evaluate and prove each system in operating conditions prior to shipment-reducing the time to startup and ensuring that customers meet their often demanding operation deadlines. The Hutchinson test facility is also equipped to evaluate nanoparticle generation and gasification projects.

The core of PSC's business is their plasma arc torches. The torches are currently available in three arc modes and five power ranges. The arc modes, illustrated in the drawing, include transferred, non-transferred, or a convertible mode that is capable of switching between transferred and non-transferred operation. Some torches are capable of generating temperatures as high as 16,000° K (about 28,340º F).

A wide variety of nanoparticles can be manufactured by combining PSC's plasma torches with proper post-plasma reactors. For example, the plasma torches can be used to vaporize raw stock. Once vaporized, post-plasma processing can be used to recast the material into the desired form. Rapid quenching is often used to freeze the chemistry when it is in the desired state. Additional chemical processing can be included as needed.
transfer torch

PSC has partnered with the U.S. Army to develop a large-scale nanoparticle demonstrator capable of producing up to ten tons of nanoparticles per day. To do so, PSC is developing modular systems that will have the flexibility to generate a wide range of materials. The idea is to design a module, including a plasma torch and reactor, that generates as great of quantities of nanoparticles as possible. Once completed, any number of modules can then be stacked together to generate the full-scale quantities of nanoparticles that are required for any particular customer. When the customer is the U.S. Army, those quantities may be as much as ten tons per day, or more. Such nanoparticles can be used in a wide range of military applications, such as rocket fuels, munitions, and materials for vehicular and personnel armor.

PSC's torches are not only used for nanoparticle generation. In fact, approximately 80% of PSC's technology is currently sold to Japan where it is used for waste remediation, power production, and metallurgical refinement. Waste processing systems have the ability to handle diverse waste streams including incinerator ash, municipal solid waste, biomedical and low/intermediate level nuclear waste. The systems provide drastic reductions in both volume and toxicity. The byproduct of plasma-processed inorganic waste streams is a chemically inert glassy slag, which can be recycled into a number of useful materials including roadbeds, architectural tile, and even artwork.

Their power production technology involves the use of feedstocks such as municipal solid waste, corn stover and other biomass. Plasma torches are used to convert the feedstock into a synthetic fuel that can then be used to produce electricity. PSC's technology offers a vision of the future where waste is channeled not to landfills but to power plants.

Last summer, PSC began work on a project under a contract with the Minnesota Department of Commerce. The project is intended to show that the cost of producing synthetic gas from biomass feedstocks is competitive with the cost of producing commercial natural gas. The project is part of Governor Pawlenty's Next Generation Energy Initiative and is expected to be completed later this summer.

To learn more about Phoenix Solutions Company, call (763) 544-2721 or visit www.phoenixsolutionsco.com.