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The upshot is that biochar is good at pulling pollutants like lead out of water.
結果生物炭非常善于將鉛等污染物從水中抽走。
And once a filter was saturated with the stuff, it would be a simple matter to replace it,
一旦過濾器被這一物質(zhì)飽和，替換它將是一件簡單的事情，
strip out the accumulated lead using nitric acid, and then burn or dump the exhausted biochar.
用硝酸除去積累形成的鉛，然后燃燒或傾倒耗盡的生物炭。
Dr Mohan already knew, from previous work, that pine-wood biochar is an effective agent for stripping lead from water.
從之前的研究中，Mohan博士已經(jīng)知道了松木生物炭是一種有效的鉛脫除劑。
But pine wood is a valuable commodity, so he wondered if he could pull off a similar trick using another forest product—
但松木是一種昂貴的商品，所以他想知道是否可以用另一種林產(chǎn)品完成類似的任務——
one that currently has no value, namely pine needles.
一種目前不值錢的木產(chǎn)品，即松針。
To test this idea he and his colleagues went foraging for needles in the forests of Uttarakhand state, north-east of Delhi.
為了驗證這一想法，他和他的同事去了德里東北的北阿坎德邦的森林里尋找針葉。
They returned their spoils to the laboratory, divided the needles into batches,
他們把找到的針葉帶回實驗室，將針葉分成幾批，
and charred the batches in an electric furnace at temperatures ranging from 350-750°C.
然后分別在電爐中用350到750攝氏度的溫度燒焦。
Experiments suggested that material charred at 550°C extracted lead most efficiently,
試驗表明烤焦到550攝氏度的材料能最有效地提取鉛，
and examination showed that this material had the largest internal surface area per gram
并且檢驗表明，這一材料每克中的內(nèi)表面面積最大
(determined by a technique that measures a substance's ability to adsorb gases),
（由一種測量物質(zhì)吸附氣體能力的技術來測定的），
and the optimal level of carbonisation needed to preserve the metal-capturing organic compounds.
還有保存金屬捕獲有機化合物所需的最佳碳化水平。
The best temperature for the process, they discovered, was 35°C—just under body heat, and also ambient, at least in the summer,
他們發(fā)現(xiàn)，這一過程的最佳溫度是35攝氏度——剛好低于體溫，和常溫，至少在夏天
in the wide plain south of the Himalaya through which the Ganges, one of the most polluted rivers on the planet, flows.
在喜馬拉雅南部的廣闊平原上是如此，且地球上污染最嚴重的河流之一——恒河流經(jīng)這里。
Whether these laboratory observations can be turned into a practical process is hard to say.
這些實驗室觀察結果是否能夠轉為實踐過程還很難說。
Special filtration-beds would have to be built in water-treatment plants—
水處理工廠中必須有特殊的過濾層——
facilities of which India is in any case woefully short. But it is not short of material to make the biochar.
而印度非常缺乏這些設施。但印度并不缺乏制造這種生物炭的材料。
An average hectare of Himalayan conifer forest produces over six tonnes of needles a year.
喜馬拉雅針葉林平均一公頃每年生產(chǎn)6噸以上的針葉。
The process of charring would reduce this to two tonnes, but that is still a fair yield.
烤焦過程將使這個量減少至兩噸，但這仍是一個合理的產(chǎn)出。
How much of this fallen foliage would need to be removed to reduce the fire risk and gain the other potential benefits,
需要處理多少落葉才能降低風險，并獲得其他潛在益處，
and what further effects this might have on the local ecology, remain to be determined.
這一做法會進一步對當?shù)厣鷳B(tài)產(chǎn)生怎樣的影響，這些仍有待確定。
But Dr Mohan's work does show how the cost of this removal might be turned into a benefit enjoyed by all.
但Mohan博士的研究確實表明，清除這些針葉的成本可能會如何轉變成所有人都能享受的利益。
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