評(píng)論
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Science and Technology
科技版塊
Green aviation
綠色航空
Liquid sunshine
液體陽(yáng)光
A way of combining atmospheric CO2 and water to make aircraft fuel
一種將大氣中的二氧化碳和水結(jié)合起來(lái)制造飛機(jī)燃料的方法
MOST PEOPLE who think about such things agree that replacing fossil fuels with renewable electricity, either directly or indirectly, is the best way to decarbonise industry, transport and the heating and cooling of buildings.
大多數(shù)人都同意這一點(diǎn)——直接或間接地用可再生電力取代化石燃料是工業(yè)、交通以及建筑供暖和制冷的脫碳最佳方式。
But there are some holdout areas where this is hard.
但也有一些領(lǐng)域難以做到脫碳。
Cement is one.
水泥行業(yè)就是其中之一。
Aviation is another, because batteries are too heavy and hydrogen (which could be made using renewable electricity) too bulky to do the job easily.
航空領(lǐng)域是另一個(gè)，因?yàn)殡姵靥兀瑲洌梢杂每稍偕娏χ圃欤┬枰捏w積太大，難以實(shí)現(xiàn)。
Hydrocarbon aviation fuels are thus likely to be around for a while.
因此，碳?xì)浠衔锖娇杖剂峡赡軙?huì)存在一段時(shí)間。
But such fuels need not be fossil.
但這些燃料不一定是化石燃料。
They might be synthesised from the CO2 exhaust of various industrial processes.
它們可以從各種工業(yè)過(guò)程排放二氧化碳合成。
And a study just published in Nature, by Aldo Steinfeld of ETH Zurich, a technological university in Switzerland, and his colleagues, shows how they might literally be plucked from thin air.
瑞士蘇黎世理工大學(xué)的阿爾多·斯坦菲爾德和他的同事們剛剛在《自然》雜志上發(fā)表的一項(xiàng)研究展示，它們是如何從稀薄的空氣中提取燃料的。
Dr Steinfeld and his team devised and tested a system that, in essence, reimagines the natural process of photosynthesis.
斯坦菲爾德博士和他的團(tuán)隊(duì)設(shè)計(jì)并測(cè)試了一個(gè)系統(tǒng)，從本質(zhì)上說(shuō)，它可以重新想象光合作用的自然過(guò)程。
Plants take in atmospheric CO2 and water and, with sunlight providing the energy, turn those raw materials into organic molecules.
植物吸收大氣中的二氧化碳和水，并通過(guò)陽(yáng)光提供能量，將這些原材料轉(zhuǎn)化為有機(jī)分子。
And that is exactly what Dr Steinfeld has done.
這正是斯坦菲爾德博士所做的。
The process has three stages.
這個(gè)過(guò)程分為三個(gè)階段。
The first absorbs CO2 and water from the atmosphere using a so-called direct-air-capture device made by Climeworks, a spin-off of ETH founded by two of Dr Steinfeld's students that made the news recently by opening a demonstration carbon-capture-and-storage system in Iceland.
第一個(gè)階段是利用Climeworks制造的名為“直接捕獲空氣裝置”從大氣中吸收二氧化碳和水，Climeworks是ETH的衍生產(chǎn)品，是由斯坦菲爾德博士的兩個(gè)學(xué)生創(chuàng)立的，因最近在冰島開(kāi)啟了一個(gè)碳捕獲和存儲(chǔ)系統(tǒng)的演示裝置，引起了大家的關(guān)注。
There, however, the CO2 is reacted with basalt rock to dispose of it. Dr Steinfeld’s system makes use of it.
然而，在那里，二氧化碳與玄武巖發(fā)生反應(yīng)，將其轉(zhuǎn)化。斯坦菲爾德博士的系統(tǒng)利用了它。
The second stage is the clever bit.
第二個(gè)階段是是很有巧思的。
It employs concentrated sunlight to heat a material called cerium oxide which, when so heated, reacts with both CO2 and water.
它利用集中的陽(yáng)光加熱一種叫做氧化鈰的物質(zhì)，當(dāng)這種物質(zhì)被加熱時(shí)，它會(huì)與二氧化碳和水發(fā)生反應(yīng)。
The reaction with CO2 creates carbon monoxide.
與二氧化碳的反應(yīng)產(chǎn)生一氧化碳。
The one with water creates hydrogen.
有水的產(chǎn)生氫氣。
In both cases the by-product is oxygen, which is vented into the atmosphere.
在這兩種過(guò)程下，副產(chǎn)品都是氧氣，氧氣被排放到大氣中。
But a mixture of carbon monoxide and hydrogen is a familiar one to industrial chemists.
但是工業(yè)化學(xué)家對(duì)一氧化碳和氫氣的混合物并不陌生。
It is called syngas, and is widely used as a raw material to make other things.
它被稱為合成氣，是被廣泛用作制造其他東西的原料。
The third part of the process is therefore to turn the syngas into organic molecules.
因此，該過(guò)程的第三階段是將合成氣轉(zhuǎn)化為有機(jī)分子。
For the hydrocarbons that make up aviation fuel an industrial chemist would normally turn to what is known as the Fischer-Tropsch process.
對(duì)于構(gòu)成航空燃料的碳?xì)浠衔铮I(yè)化學(xué)家通常會(huì)采用費(fèi)托合成的方法。
For their demonstrator, the team chose another route, which led to methanol rather than hydrocarbons.
對(duì)于他們的示范者，團(tuán)隊(duì)選擇了另一條路線，這樣可以產(chǎn)生甲醇而不是碳?xì)浠衔铩?/p>
But the general idea is the same.
但總體思路是一樣的。
The team's demonstration rig, which they installed on the roof of ETH's Machine Laboratory Building, had a typical yield of 32ml of pure methanol per seven-hour day—tiny, but a clear proof of principle.
該團(tuán)隊(duì)的演示裝置安裝在ETH機(jī)器實(shí)驗(yàn)室大樓的屋頂上，其產(chǎn)量為每7小時(shí)32毫升純甲醇，雖然量很小，但這是一個(gè)明確的原理證明。
A back-of-the-envelope calculation suggests that substituting the world’s aviation-fuel market entirely in this way would need 45,000km2 of suitably insolated land.
粗略計(jì)算表明，以這種方式完全替代世界航空燃料市場(chǎng)需要4.5萬(wàn)平方千米的適當(dāng)日照土地。
That sounds a lot, but is equivalent to about 0.5% of the area of the Sahara Desert.
這聽(tīng)起來(lái)很多，但僅相當(dāng)于撒哈拉沙漠面積的0.5%。
Air-captured aviation fuel would certainly need its path to market smoothed by appropriate carbon taxes on the fossil variety, and possibly other measures.
通過(guò)對(duì)化石燃料征收適當(dāng)?shù)奶级悾偌由峡赡懿扇〉钠渌胧諝庵胁东@的航空燃料進(jìn)入市場(chǎng)的道路肯定會(huì)變得平坦。
But Dr Steinfeld's rig does seem to have demonstrated a credible and potentially scalable way to go about making the stuff.
但是斯坦菲爾德博士的設(shè)備似乎已經(jīng)證明了一種可靠的、潛在的可擴(kuò)大規(guī)模化的方法來(lái)制造這些東西。
