VOA慢速英语2012 Technology Report - Turning Industrial Waste-Heat Into Electricity

 

Technology Report - Turning Industrial Waste-Heat Into Electricity

科技报道 - 利用工业废热发电

This is the VOA Special English Technology Report.

这里是美国之音慢速英语科技报道。

Scientists say enough energy is being wasted in the oil and gas fields of Texas every year to provide electricity to one hundred thousand homes. Businessman Loy Sneary says he is using that waste to create a profitable company called Gulf¹ Coast Green Energy.

科学家称德克萨斯州的油气田每年有足够为10万家庭提供电力的热量被浪费。实业家洛伊·斯尼里（Loy Sneary）表示，他利用这些废弃物创建了一个名为墨西哥湾沿岸绿色能源（Gulf Coast Green Energy）的盈利公司。

Mr. Sneary says sixty percent of all energy produced in the world today is being lost as wasted heat. He wants to capture some of that heat from -- among other places -- the thousands of oil and gas wells in Texas, and turn it into electricity.

斯尼里先生说，今天全球生产的60%的能源被作为废热损失掉。他希望从德克萨斯州数千口油气井捕获一些热量，并将其转化为电能。

LOY SNEARY: “We’ve got more electricity that could be generated than all of the coal-fired power plants, natural gas fired power plants and nuclear power plants in the world. That’s what the potential is.”

斯尼里：“我们可以比全球所有燃煤电厂、天然气电厂和核电厂发出更多的电，这就是潜力所在。”

Deep underground, the earth is hot. If you drive a drill down into hard rock or shale², the drill bit gets hot. Mr. Sneary uses his “Green Machine” technology to help capture the energy that is produced when heat meets cold. The machine moves the hot well-water through one pipe next to another filled with a cooling material called refrigerant. This refrigerant boils, and steam is produced. This steam is used to make electricity.

地球地下深处是热的。如果你用凿岩机向坚硬的岩石或页岩钻下，钻头会变热。斯尼里先生使用他的“绿色机器”技术帮助捕获热量遇冷时产生的能量。该机器使用一根紧挨一根的管道将热井水注入被称为冷却剂的冷却材料中。这些冷却剂沸腾产生的蒸汽被用于发电。

LOY SNEARY: “And so we can take these lower temperatures, hot water sources, transfer the heat, and then once that refrigerant is expanded and pressurized, from there on it’s just like a steam turbine.”

斯尼里：“所以我们可以利用这些温度不高的热水资源来转移热量，一旦冷却剂膨胀增压，它就会像一台蒸汽涡轮机。”

It is not just oil and gas wells that can provide waste heat for the Green Energy machines to use to make electricity. The heat-recycling technology can work with solar energy collectors, coal-fired power plants and internal combustion³ engines -- almost any industrial process that produces waste heat. 

不仅是油气井可以提供废热供绿色能源机器使用来发电。热回收技术可以应用于太阳能集热器、燃煤电厂以及内燃机等几乎所有工业工程中产生的废热。

Last year, Mr. Sneary connected his device to the boilers⁴ at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas. He used that system’s waste heat to create electricity, helping⁵ to reduce the university’s utility bills.

去年，斯尼里先生将他的设备与德克萨斯州达拉斯市南卫理公会大学的锅炉连接起来。他使用这一锅炉系统的废热发电，帮助降低该大学的水电费。

Maria Richards is SMU’s Geothermal Laboratory Coordinator⁶. She says the lab’s temperature maps help Mr. Sneary find hot areas near petroleum⁷ drilling operations. Those areas are where Mr. Sneary can deploy⁸ his machines. The school and Gulf Coast Green Energy have worked together for several years.

玛丽亚·理查兹（Maria Richards）是南卫理公会大学地热实验室协调员。她称该实验室的气温地图帮助斯尼里先生找出了石油钻井作业附近热的地区。斯尼里先生可以在这些地区部署他的机器。这所大学和墨西哥湾沿岸绿色能源公司已经合作多年。

MARIA RICHARDS: “There is so much heat in the Gulf Coast, and that made us realize that by working with the oil and gas wells, it was an ability to tap into those resources.”

理查兹：“墨西哥湾沿岸地区热量如此丰富，这使得我们认识到，通过与油气井合作能够挖掘这些资源。”

LOY SNEARY: “The research that the SMU Geothermal Lab has done has allowed us to target the areas where there is adequate heat in these oil and gas wells to be able to be utilized⁹.”

斯尼里：“南卫理公会大学地热实验室已完成的研究使得我们瞄准了油气井能够利用的热量的这一领域。”

Loy Sneary is now negotiating with drillers in Texas and is working on a project in West Virginia. He also is looking at other states.

斯尼里正与德克萨斯州的钻井方谈判，并致力于西弗吉尼亚州的一个项目。他还在考虑其它州。

And that’s the VOA Special English Technology Report. I’m Christopher Cruise.

--

Contributing: Bill Zeeble

1 gulf   

n.海湾；深渊，鸿沟；分歧，隔阂

参考例句：

• The gulf between the two leaders cannot be bridged.两位领导人之间的鸿沟难以跨越。
• There is a gulf between the two cities.这两座城市间有个海湾。

2 shale   

n.页岩，泥板岩

参考例句：

• We can extract oil from shale.我们可以从页岩中提取石油。
• Most of the rock in this mountain is shale.这座山上大部分的岩石都是页岩。

3 combustion   

n.燃烧；氧化；骚动

参考例句：

• We might be tempted to think of combustion.我们也许会联想到氧化。
• The smoke formed by their combustion is negligible.由它燃烧所生成的烟是可忽略的。

4 boilers   

锅炉，烧水器，水壶( boiler的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Even then the boilers often burst or came apart at the seams. 甚至那时的锅炉也经常从焊接处爆炸或裂开。 来自英汉非文学 - 科学史
• The clean coal is sent to a crusher and the boilers. 干净的煤送入破碎机和锅炉。

5 helping   

n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的

参考例句：

• The poor children regularly pony up for a second helping of my hamburger. 那些可怜的孩子们总是要求我把我的汉堡包再给他们一份。
• By doing this, they may at times be helping to restore competition. 这样一来, 他在某些时候,有助于竞争的加强。

6 coordinator   

n.协调人

参考例句：

• The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, headed by the Emergency Relief Coordinator, coordinates all UN emergency relief. 联合国人道主义事务协调厅在紧急救济协调员领导下，负责协调联合国的所有紧急救济工作。
• How am I supposed to find the client-relations coordinator? 我怎么才能找到客户关系协调员的办公室？

7 petroleum   

n.原油，石油

参考例句：

• The Government of Iran advanced the price of petroleum last week.上星期伊朗政府提高了石油价格。
• The purpose of oil refinery is to refine crude petroleum.炼油厂的主要工作是提炼原油。

8 deploy   

v.（军）散开成战斗队形，布置，展开

参考例句：

• The infantry began to deploy at dawn.步兵黎明时开始进入战斗位置。
• The president said he had no intention of deploying ground troops.总统称并不打算部署地面部队。

9 utilized   

v.利用，使用( utilize的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• In the19th century waterpower was widely utilized to generate electricity. 在19世纪人们大规模使用水力来发电。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The empty building can be utilized for city storage. 可以利用那栋空建筑物作城市的仓库。 来自《简明英汉词典》