VOA慢速英语2015 采集二氧化碳成本既高、又有困难

Capturing CO2 Is Costly¹ and Difficult 采集二氧化碳成本既高、又有困难

Most scientists agree that increasing amounts of carbon-dioxide gas in Earth’s atmosphere is partly to blame for rising temperatures, also known as climate change. Changes in the atmosphere can have a big effect on weather conditions around the world.

The most cost effective way to get power still comes from burning fossil fuels such as coal, oil and natural gas. They are less costly than other forms of energy.

But burning fossil fuels releases carbon dioxide, known to scientists as CO2. Keeping excess CO2 from entering the atmosphere is a difficult and costly process. Scientists are looking for the best and least costly methods for capturing the gas and storing it away from the atmosphere.

Some of this research is taking place in western Norway. The Technology Center in Mongstad is the largest facility in the world for major testing of new CO2-capturing technologies. The center is called TCM.

Tore Amundsen is its chairman. He says TCM has produced important knowledge since it opened in 2012.

"We learned about selection of materials, we learned about design models, that has been improved considerably² through these tests, and we learned a lot about operations of a facility which is a fairly large facility."

Tore Amundsen says there are other things to be learned from operating large machinery³ designed to capture CO2 from power stations.

"Simple things like how to start it up, how to run it at different modes, and how to close it down again. Simple things like that we didn't have experience with beforehand."

TCM is connected to a nearby electric power plant. Mr. Amundsen says the center treats exhaust fumes⁴ from the plant. It uses chemical solvents⁶ to capture CO2 from those gases.

"The solvent⁵ attracts the CO2 molecules⁷ from the exhaust gas and then we take the chemical with the CO2 molecules and boil the CO2 so to speak, so that we can separate the CO2 from the solvent that we used and we use the solvent again to capture more CO2."

The goal is to capture 90 percent of the CO2 from the exhaust gases. But Mr. Amundsen says the process is still costly.

"With the current state of technology it is something that will increase the cost of electricity between perhaps 30 to 40% when the technology is applied⁸ on a power plant."

Experts say the best way to store the captured gas is to place it underground into areas left empty after the removal of oil or natural gas.  

But the Technology Center Mongstad does not pump the CO2 it captures underground. Instead, it releases the gas into the atmosphere.

Tore Amundsen says only highly developed industrial nations have the money to pay for this kind of technology. So far, only Canada has a power plant that pumps CO2 gas underground. Other countries are building similar power plants.

Words in this Story

excess – n.,  an amount that is more than the usual or necessary amount

exhaust – n., the gases produced by an engine

power plant – n., a building or factory in which electricity is produced for a large area

solvent – n., a liquid that is used to break up another substance

1 costly   

adj.昂贵的，价值高的，豪华的

参考例句：

• It must be very costly to keep up a house like this.维修这么一幢房子一定很昂贵。
• This dictionary is very useful,only it is a bit costly.这本词典很有用，左不过贵了些。

2 considerably   

adv.极大地；相当大地；在很大程度上

参考例句：

• The economic situation has changed considerably.经济形势已发生了相当大的变化。
• The gap has narrowed considerably.分歧大大缩小了。

3 machinery   

n.(总称)机械，机器；机构

参考例句：

• Has the machinery been put up ready for the broadcast?广播器材安装完毕了吗？
• Machinery ought to be well maintained all the time.机器应该随时注意维护。

4 fumes   

n.(强烈而刺激的)气味，气体

参考例句：

• The health of our children is being endangered by exhaust fumes. 我们孩子们的健康正受到排放出的废气的损害。
• Exhaust fumes are bad for your health. 废气对健康有害。

5 solvent   

n.溶剂；adj.有偿付能力的

参考例句：

• Gasoline is a solvent liquid which removes grease spots.汽油是一种能去掉油污的有溶解力的液体。
• A bankrupt company is not solvent.一个破产的公司是没有偿还债务的能力的。

6 solvents   

溶解的，溶剂

参考例句：

• It is resistant to borohydride reduction in alcoholic solvents. 在醇溶剂中，它不能被硼氢化物还原。
• Strains require special treatments for removal such as spotting with organic solvents. 要清除这些着色物质，需要特殊处理，例如：滴加有机溶剂。

7 molecules   

分子( molecule的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The structure of molecules can be seen under an electron microscope. 分子的结构可在电子显微镜下观察到。
• Inside the reactor the large molecules are cracked into smaller molecules. 在反应堆里，大分子裂变为小分子。

8 applied   

adj.应用的；v.应用，适用

参考例句：

• She plans to take a course in applied linguistics.她打算学习应用语言学课程。
• This cream is best applied to the face at night.这种乳霜最好晚上擦脸用。