Worcester Polytechnic Institute in Massachusetts is developing technology that aims to use lasers to drastically cut emissions and energy use from Maine’s paper and pulp industry. They received a $2.75 million U.S. Department of Energy grant to help ready the industrial drying technology for commercial use. …Worcester Polytechnic’s drying research center has been working on ways to dry paper, pulp, and other materials using the concentrated energy found in lasers. The lasers Yagoobi’s team is using are not the lasers of the public imagination, like a red beam zapping at alien enemies. Though the lasers are quite strong — they can melt metal, Yagoobi says — they are dispersed over a larger area, spreading out the energy to evenly and gently dry the target material. 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 make sure the product quality is not compromised during the drying process.