May 15, 2026

In 2026, the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture (PDA), led by Secretary Russell Redding under the Shapiro Administration, is heavily investing in agricultural innovation, youth career education, and regional development. Key initiatives in early 2026 include a $2.2 million investment in 17 research grants and a proposed $19 million for the Agricultural Innovation Grant program. Read more here.

The manure and anaerobic digestate generated in cattle or pig farms are a rich source of plant usable nitrogen content. However, in its natural form, the high pH content of this organic waste results in volatilization of nitrogen content as ammonia. Based on estimates the combined quantity of reactive nitrogen lost from these forms of organic waste is about 45% of annual fertilizer manufacture via Haber-Bosch NH₃ manufacture. Conventionally, acidification using mineral acids was the go-to method for lowering ammonia emissions from these farms generate organic waste. Plasma discharges present a safe, eco-friendly, decentralized, and on-demand acidification technique that could be used to lower pH of digestate, as well as increase the nitrogen content in it through the reactive nitrogen species produced by air plasmas.

Research team led by Drs. Christopher Sales, Jinjie He, Mobish Shaji, Alexander Rabinovich, and Alexander Fridman in Nyheim Plasma Institute at Drexel University will utilize a non-thermal discharge, gliding arc discharge (GAD), to acidify digestate liquid fraction and evaluate the energy efficiency of GAD in lowering ammonia emissions and improving nitrogen content in digestate. GAD improved energy efficiency and selective chemical activation without excessive heating, making it a more sustainable and scalable approach for on-farm applications.

Ammonia emissions from anaerobic digestate (Bharal et al)