Draft:Albin Czernichowski

Albin Czernichowski
Albin Czernichowski in 2024, standing in front of a prototype system using the GlidArc plasma process for converting heterogeneous carbon-based feedstock into high-quality syngas Albin Czernichowski (2024)
Citizenship	Polish, French
Alma mater	Wrocław University of Science and Technology
Known for	Gliding arc discharge (GlidArc)
Scientific career
Fields	Plasma chemistry, Plasma physics
Institutions	Wrocław University of Science and Technology; University of Orléans (GREMI/CNRS)
Thesis	Badania nad rozkładem stałych substancji nieorganicznych w plazmie termicznej (Study of the Decomposition of Inorganic Solids in the Thermal Plasma) (1965)
Doctoral advisor	Włodzimierz Trzebiatowski

Albin Czernichowski is a Polish–French chemist and physicist, inventor, specializing in plasma chemistry. He was a professor at Wrocław University of Science and Technology and later at the University of Orléans in France (until 2005). He was a member of the Low-Temperature Plasma Chemistry Commission at the Lublin Branch of the Polish Academy of Sciences. He is known for his contribution to the fundamental development of gliding arc discharge (GlidArc) - its physics, engineering, and wide range of applications. He worked on pioneering applications of non-thermal plasma in environmental protection and in the production of syngas.

Biography

Early life and education

In his childhood he showed an interest in chemistry and physicochemical processes; at the age of 12 he constructed his first setup for pyrolysis (dry distillation).

He earned a Ph.D. in 1965 at the Faculty of Chemistry of Wrocław University of Science and Technology with a dissertation titled Badania nad rozkładem stałych substancji nieorganicznych w plazmie termicznej (Study of the decomposition of inorganic solids in thermal plasma) supervised by Prof. Włodzimierz Trzebiatowski. He obtained a habilitation in 1971 with the thesis Laserowa i spektralna diagnostyka pseudorównowagowej plazmy argonowej i neonowej (Laser and spectral diagnostics of pseudo-equilibrium argon and neon plasmas).

Academic career

At Wrocław University of Science and Technology he headed the Plasma Physicochemistry Department at the Institute of Inorganic Chemistry and Metallurgy of Rare Elements, developing research on the application of plasma in chemical and analytical processes. He also conducted research for the U.S. National Bureau of Standards (now NIST) within Polish-American cooperation.

From 1981 to 2005 he was a professor of physics at the University of Orléans, working within the GREMI laboratory (Groupe de Recherches sur l’Énergétique des Milieux Ionisés), a joint unit with the CNRS.

Entrepreneurship

In 1997 he founded Etudes Chimiques et Physiques (ECP) – GlidArc Technologies in La Ferté-Saint-Aubin (France), where he led R&D and commercialization of his inventions, including syngas generation from waste gases, liquids and solids. In 2019 he became chief scientist at Warsaw-based mPower Green Tech.

Contributions to science, technology and industry

He is the author or co-author of 41 peer-reviewed papers indexed in Web of Science and additional publications, as well as four textbooks and monographs (including a chapter in Titanium and titanium dioxide technology). According to Scopus, he has an h-index of 10 with 47 publications cited 967 times.

He is named as inventor or co-inventor on 44 patent filings related to gas processing technologies and hydrocarbon synthesis, including applications for Électricité de France (EDF), Rhone-Poulenc, British Petroleum, the CEA, Ceramatec Inc., and Florida Syngas. More recent filings include: a horizontal gasifier and an oxidation-reduction plasma reactor for processing wastes into clean syngas.

He developed GlidArc devices utilizing the gliding arc discharge phenomenon, applied in gas conversion, biofuel production, and flue-gas cleaning. In particular, his devices have been used for:

• methane pyrolysis,
• abatement of VOCs such as toluene, xylene and heptane, as well as SOₓ and NOₓ, methyl mercaptan, hydrogen sulfide and nitrous oxide;
• reforming of glycerol, methane, and propane, for syngas production;
• production of zero-emission hydrogen (H₂),
• removal of tars and other contaminants from process gases from biomass gasification to produce clean syngas.