UC Merced Researchers Studying the Plasma Gasification of Biomass

摘要

Behind a locking fence near the entrance to UC Merced, a group of professors are producing some serious heat. Engineering professors Gerardo Diaz, Wolfgang Rogge and Yihsu Chen, and a group of students are spending their summer in the lab, generating plasma blasts of more than 3,000 degrees Celsius (5,432 degrees Fahrenheit) as they work on turning biomass — organic leftovers such as coffee grounds, almond hulls and the leavings from wineries — into clean-burning energy.