UC Riverside unveils new laboratory, celebrates Palm Desert researcher

The University of California Riverside showed off its new College of Engineering Center for Environmental Research and Technology, better know as “CE-CERT.”

It’s the only one of its kind in the state because it has the only pressurized and continuously operating gasifier. The device is called the Steam Hydrogasification Reaction Process Demonstration Unit. It turns your waste into energy and fuel.

Lead researcher, Joe Norbeck of Palm Desert, said it took nearly 12 years and $15 million to make it happen. The goal is to help reduce waste and improve air and water quality. And ultimately, make growing communities like the Coachella Valley more sustainable.

“It allows you to take all kinds of carbon waste and convert it, which you would normally do in a landfill, into a profit making fuel that’s clean for the environment,” said Norbeck.

Within a few years, researchers expect the unit will be available for commercial use. Right now, it’s giving students a hands on opportunity to fuel the future.

“They’ll have excellent training,” said Norbeck. “A lot of our students aren’t from the United States and they’ll be able to go to China and Thailand and implement this.”