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The production of NO x from air and air 1 O 2 is investigated in a pulsed powered milli-scale gliding arc (GA) reactor, aiming at a containerized process for fertilizer production. Influence of feed mixture, flow rate, temperature, and Ar and O 2 content are investigated at varying specific energy input. The findings are correlated with high-speed imaging of the GA dynamics. An O 2 content of 40-48% was optimum, with an enhancement of 11% in NO x production. Addition of Ar and preheating of the feed resulted in lower NO x production. Lower flow rates produced higher NO x concentrations due to longer residence time in the GA. The volume covered by GA depends strongly on the gas flow rate, emphasizing that the gas flow rate has a major impact on the GA dynamics and the reaction kinetics. For 0.5 L/min, 1.4 vol % of NO x concentration was realized, which is promising for a containerized process plant to produce fertilizer in remote locations.

Flow processes with microstructured reactors allow paradigm changes in process development and thus can enable a faster development time to the final production plant. They do this by exploiting similarity effects along the development chain (modularity) and intensification. The final result can be a (significantly) reduced number of apparatus in the plant, a (significantly) reduced apparatus size, and a higher predictability in the scale-out of the apparatus. So far, this was mainly achieved via transport intensification given in microstructured reactorsimproved mixing and heat transfer which increase productivity and possibly improve selectivity. A more new idea is chemical intensification through deliberate use of harsh chemistries at unusual (high) pressure, temperature, concentration, and reaction environment which again increases productivity. A very new idea is the process design intensification -the reaction-maximized flow processes need less separation expenditure and the small unit size together with the high degree in functionality gives large potential for system integration. Both means change and simplify the process scheme totally which can lead to a reduced number of apparatus and has impact on predictability. The modular nature of the small flow units allow an easy implementation to modern modular plant environments (Future Factories) which enables to perform all the testing cycles (lab, pilot, production) in one plant environment; an example are here container plants. All these measures have large potential for (much) decreased overall development time.

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