Lasers could help cut CO2 emissions from Maine’s paper and pulp mills

Testing on food products has shown that the technology can work. Now, researchers need to learn more about how the laser energy affects different materials to ensure the product quality is not compromised during the drying process.

“For paper, it’s important to make sure the tensile strength is not degrading,” Yagoobi said. ​“For food products, you want to make sure the color and sensory qualities do not degrade.”

Therefore, before the system is ready for a commercial pilot, the team has to gather a lot more data about how much laser energy is present on different parts of the surface and how deeply the energy penetrates different materials. Once gathered, this data will be used to determine what system sizes and operating conditions are best for different materials, and to design laser modules for each intended use.

Once these details are worked out, the laser technology can be installed in new commercial-scale drying equipment or existing systems. ​“This particular technology will be easy to retrofit,” Yagoobi said.

Industrial sources were responsible for about 1.3 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions in the United States in 2023, about 28% of the country’s overall emissions, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. Heating processes, often powered by natural gas or other fossil fuels, are responsible for about half of those emissions, said Evan Gillespie, one of the co-founders of Industrious Labs. Many industrial drying processes require high temperatures that have traditionally been difficult to reach without fossil fuels, giving the sector a reputation as hard to decarbonize, Gillespie said.

“The key challenge here is: How do you remove natural gas as a heating source inside industrial facilities?” said Richard Hart, industry director at the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy. ​“The scale of what is happening in industry is enormous, and the potential for change is very powerful.”

To make the new technology effective, industry leaders and policymakers will need to commit to reinvesting in old facilities, Gillespie noted. And doing so will be well worth it by strengthening an economically important industry, keeping jobs in place, and creating important environmental benefits, he added.

“There’s often this old story of tensions between climate and jobs,” Gillespie said. ​“But what we’re trying to do is modernize these facilities and stabilize them so they’ll be around for decades to come.”