Predictive Gate-to-Gate Life Cycle Assessment of an Early-Stage Plasma-Based Ammonia Synthesis Technology

A predictive gate-to-gate life cycle assessment (LCA) of plasma-assisted ammonia synthesis at TRL 4 is presented according to ISO 14040/44 standards. General plasma-assisted synthesis was evaluated through a mini-review‚ sensitivity analysis‚ and predictive LCA. The specific DBD needle-to-plate configuration LCA is performed using previously published experimental data. Two distinct scenarios were investigated. In the literature-based baseline scenario derived from sensitivity analysis, electricity consumption was 533 kWh/kg NH3, giving a carbon footprint of 26.65–639.60 kg CO2-eq/kg NH3; electricity contributed 98.5% of total emissions, and impacts remained about 2.05 times higher than conventional Haber–Bosch. In contrast, the experimental DBD case study required 63,450 kWh/kg NH3, showing reactor efficiency as the dominant driver of environmental performance. The BCS (≈1.39 kWh/kg NH3) suggests that optimized plasma systems could potentially surpass conventional ammonia synthesis in energy efficiency. The environmental performance of plasma-assisted ammonia synthesis is affected by NH3, NOx, N2O, and hydrogen emissions due to impacts on climate, air quality, water systems, and biodiversity. Future improvements may come from reactor and electrode optimization, catalyst integration, alternative plasma sources, and better process and heat integration, although deployment will likely depend on major efficiency gains and may be limited to niche decentralized applications.