威士忌副产品或会成为下一代汽车燃料

威士忌副产品或会成为下一代汽车燃料

Scotland is the world's largest whisky producer. And Scottish professor has discovered how to take the waste products from distilling¹ whisky and turn them into biobutanol, an alcohol that can be used as fuel.

苏格兰是世界上最大的威士忌生产地。而现在苏格兰的教授发现了如何从蒸馏过的威士忌中提取废料并将其转化成可用作燃料酒精生化丁醇的方法。

Martin Tangney, founded Celtic Renewables, an Edinburgh-based company that is producing biobutanol at a plant in Belgium.

马汀·塔格尼是凯尔特再生能源的创始人，这家总部位于爱丁堡的公司在比利时工厂生产生化丁醇。

“In the production of whisky, less than 10 percent of what comes out in the distillery is actually the primary product. The bulk of the remainder are these two unwanted residues²—pot ale and barley³.”

“在威士忌的生产过程当中蒸馏出不到10%的物质实际上才是主要产品。剩下的大多数都是酒糟和大麦这2种不需要的残留。”

Those residues are combined to create a new raw material. And by adapting a century-old fermentation process, it is converted into biobutanol. The whisky-based biofuel provides more power than bioethanol, which is made from corn or sugar cane⁴.

而这些残留组合在一起可以诞生出一种新的物质。通过使用一种有一个世纪历史的发酵过程，它们能够被转化为生化丁醇。相比是由玉米和甘蔗制成的生化乙醇，这种源于威士忌的生物燃料能够提供更多的能量。

“It has almost the same amount of energy as petrol, whereas bioethanol has only got 70 percent of it. You can store it, and pipe it, and use the existing infrastructure⁵ to distribute this, and in fact, you do not need to modify an engine.”

“它几乎可以和汽油提供的能量一样，然而生化乙醇只能提供70%。你可以储存，输送并且使用现存的设备分配，而事实上，你都不需要对发动机进行调整。”

Tangney doesn't expect biobutanol to replace gasoline altogether, but be blended with it. It's possible the fuel may also be used in planes and ships, and in heaters. He said consumers would also be helping⁶ the environment by “reducing the oil that we consume by putting this into their cars.”

塔格尼并不期望生化丁醇彻底取代汽油，但是他希望二者能够混合。这可能会成为飞机，轮船及加热设备的燃料。他表示客户也正在通过将这种减少汽车油耗的燃料帮助改善我们的环境。

 

Celtic Renewables has received a 17 million grant from the British government to build a plant in Scotland that's expected to be operational within three years.

凯尔特再生能源已收到英国政府1700万美元的拨款，他们将在苏格兰建造一家工厂并且预计在3年内投入使用。

1 distilling   

n.蒸馏（作用）v.蒸馏( distil的过去式和过去分词 )( distilled的过去分词 )；从…提取精华

参考例句：

• Water can be made pure by distilling it. 水经蒸馏可变得纯净。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• More ammonium sulphate solution is being recovered in the process of distilling oil shale. 在提炼油页岩的过程中回收的硫酸铵液比过去多了。 来自《简明英汉词典》

2 residues   

n.剩余，余渣( residue的名词复数 )；剩余财产；剩数

参考例句：

• pesticide residues in fruit and vegetables 残留在水果和蔬菜中的杀虫剂
• All organic and metallic residues on the wafers must be removed. 片子上所有的有机和金属残留物均必须清除。 来自辞典例句

3 barley   

n.大麦，大麦粒

参考例句：

• They looked out across the fields of waving barley.他们朝田里望去,只见大麦随风摇摆。
• He cropped several acres with barley.他种了几英亩大麦。

4 cane   

n.手杖，细长的茎，藤条；v.以杖击，以藤编制的

参考例句：

• This sugar cane is quite a sweet and juicy.这甘蔗既甜又多汁。
• English schoolmasters used to cane the boys as a punishment.英国小学老师过去常用教鞭打男学生作为惩罚。

5 infrastructure   

n.下部构造，下部组织，基础结构，基础设施

参考例句：

• We should step up the development of infrastructure for research.加强科学基础设施建设。
• We should strengthen cultural infrastructure and boost various types of popular culture.加强文化基础设施建设，发展各类群众文化。

6 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。