草油的工作原理

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你正在变得越来越聪明。

You're getting smarter.

你好，欢迎收听本播客。

Hello, and welcome to the podcast.

我是乔什·克拉克。

I'm Josh Clark.

我是howstuffworks.com的专职作家。

I'm a staff writer here @howstuffworks.com.

今天和我在一起的是我信赖的编辑，克里斯·波莱特。

And with me today is my trusty editor, Chris Paulette.

克里斯和我对于文章该包含或不该包含什么内容并不总是一致，但我可以告诉你们，我们俩都认同并觉得非常有趣的一件事。

Chris and I don't always see eye to eye on what should or shouldn't go into the article, but I can tell you one that we both agree on and find fascinating.

这是一篇我写的、他编辑的文章，题目是：我们能用草来为汽车提供燃料吗？

It's an article that I wrote and he edited called, can we fuel cars with grass?

所以，克里斯，你来给听众讲讲这篇文章以及它讲了什么吧？

So Chris, why

你来跟大家说说这篇文章以及它的内容吧？

don't you tell the folks about this article and and what it says?

基本上，柳枝稷是生物燃料的一种原料。

Well, basically, switchgrass is one of the feedstocks for a biofuel.

当然，现在新闻里经常提到乙醇或生物柴油。

And, of course, that's something that pops up in the news all the time now is ethanol or biodiesel.

但这里不用玉米——玉米是人和动物都会吃的东西，也不用甘蔗

But instead of using corn, which is something, of course, that that people and animals eat or sugarcane

那可是美味的东西。

Which is delicious.

是的，没错。

Oh, yes.

对。

Yes.

当然。

Absolutely.

但在美国本土很难找到。

But very hard to find in the Continental US.

当然。

Sure.

我们可以使用switchgrass，它是一种很好的纤维素来源，而纤维素就是你之前告诉我的、构成细胞壁的物质。

We can use switchgrass, which is a great source of, cellulose, which is, the substance, I believe, you told me, that cell walls are made up of.

对。

Right.

基本上，他们将其分解，像提炼石油制成汽油一样，把它变成燃料。

And, basically, what they do is they break it down and make it into a fuel just like you refine oil in into gasoline.

嗯。

Mhmm.

但你不可能在任何地方都找到化石燃料，就像你在另一篇文章中提到的，我们可能正接近石油峰值。

Except you can't can't find fossil fuels just anywhere where, you know, possibly approaching peak oil as you mentioned in another one of your articles.

因此，这种东西可以在全球各地种植，甚至种在那些不适合种植农作物的土地上。

And so this is something that that might be grown all over the world and lots that aren't good enough to grow crops on.

这可能是一个非常好的解决方案。

It might be a really good solution.

不仅如此，switchgrass还有一个很棒的特性，就是能改善它生长区域的土壤。

Well, not only that, switchgrass has the wonderful trait of being able to improve soil where it grows.

就像你所说的，它生长在那些本来就不能用于农业的贫瘠荒地上，而且还能改善土壤。

So like you were saying, it grows in these in marginal scrub lands that can't be used for farming anyway, and it actually improves the soil.

所以你在一块地里种植多年生狼尾草大约十二年，然后你会发现，奇迹般地，这块地现在变成可耕种的农田了。

So you grow some switchgrass in an area for about a dozen years, and next thing you know, presto chango, that's arable farmland now.

因此，这肯定会大大帮助非洲，因为非洲也是这种草能野生生长的地区之一。

So it would definitely help Africa out quite a bit, which is one of the regions where it can grow wild too.

所以给我们说说

So tell us

狼尾草到底是什么。

what switchgrass is specifically.

嗯，狼尾草，顾名思义，是一种草。

Well, switchgrass is, as its name suggests, a grass.

它看起来并不特别美观。

It's not particularly pleasant to look at.

你知道，有些人认为它具有入侵性，更像是一种杂草而不是别的什么。

It's you know, I think some people consider it invasive and and more like a weed than anything else.

是的。

Yes.

尤其是农民。

Farmers especially.

对。

Yeah.

而且它，我不知道。

And it's I I don't know.

我甚至都没发现这个？

Can I didn't even find this out?

动物会吃switchgrass吗，还是说它只是让人觉得烦扰，通常令人讨厌？

Do do animals eat switchgrass or is it just something that that's irritating to think it's generally irritating.

在某些情况下，某些品种会被用作观赏草。

It's used in some circumstances as an ornamental grass, some types are.

但我认为，归根结底，它被创造出来就是为了用作纤维素乙醇。

But I think ultimately, it was clearly put on the earth here to be used as a cellulosic ethanol.

嗯，这可能是对它的一种解读。

Well, suppose that's it's one interpretation of it.

很有趣的是，看看未来会发生什么，因为目前将柳枝稷提炼成纤维素乙醇的成本非常高。

It'll be interesting to to see what happens with it because right now, it's very expensive to refine switchgrass into cellulosic ethanol.

当然，每一种生物燃料的倡导者都有理由说明为什么我们应该使用他们的产品。

And of course, every proponent of every different biofuel has a reason why we should be using theirs.

但乔什，我最近发现了一件事，就在我们发表这篇文章之后：将农田改作生物燃料用途，例如种植大豆、玉米、甘蔗或棕榈树。

But one thing, Josh, that I found out recently since we published the article is that converting fields to be used for biofuels, for example, to grow soy or corn or sugarcane Or palm.

或者棕榈树，实际上可能带来更多问题，因为在转化过程中会向大气中释放二氧化碳。

Or palm, can actually be more trouble because in the conversion process, it can release carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.

我读过一篇《新科学家》的文章，说将一万平方米的巴西雨林转化为种植生物燃料作物的土地，会释放出70万吨二氧化碳，这太惊人了。

I read an article in the New Scientist that said 10,000, square meters of Brazilian rainforests, converting that over to, grow biofuel stock crops, that would actually release 700,000 kilograms of carbon dioxide, which is amazing.

你必须使用生物燃料数年，有些情况下甚至要数百年，才能弥补因转化而造成的碳债务。

You're you're have to use biofuels for years, hundreds of years in in some cases to recoup the carbon debt that you do by converting it.

因此，柳枝稷似乎能很好地解决这个问题。

So it seems like switchgrass might be a great solution to that problem.

柳枝稷是一个绝佳的解决方案，但我认为它并不是唯一的解决方案。

Switchgrass is an excellent solution, but I don't think it's the only solution.

你知道，你不能在印度尼西亚种植柳枝稷。

I you know, you can't grow switchgrass in Indonesia.

你可以在印度尼西亚种植油棕并从中提炼油脂。

You can grow palm in Indonesia and make oil from it.

当然，存在碳债务，而我们显然正在努力避免向大气中排放更多碳或其他温室气体。

And, sure, you know, there's a carbon debt, and that is something clearly that we're trying to get around is to put any more carbon or any other greenhouse gas emissions into the atmosphere.

但我认为，甚至可能比气候变化更重要的，是战争和地区自治问题。

But I think even more than even maybe more important than than climate change is war and regional autonomy.

想象一下，如果印度尼西亚无需从任何其他地方进口石油。

Imagine if Indonesia didn't have to import any oil, from anywhere else.

如果它们实现了能源自给自足。

They they were energy self sufficient.

想象一下，如果美国实现了能源自给自足。

Imagine if The US were energy self sufficient.

你觉得，如果我们都能自给自足地生产能源，世界会和平多少呢，克里斯？

How much more peaceful would the world be, do you think, Chris, if we all grew our own, energy supply?

确实如此。

That's true.

你知道，这能让地区更加稳定。

You know, it it makes regions more stable.

可供政治冲突争夺的资源就更少了。

There are fewer things to, to have political conflicts over.

当然。

Sure.

我不是在指责任何人，但战争往往是为石油而打的。

And I'm not pointing fingers, but wars are fought over oil.

当然。

Oh, sure.

还有各种其他资源。

And all all sorts of other resources.

感谢您本周的参与。

Well, thanks for joining us this week.

您可以在howstuffworks.com上阅读关于如何用草料为汽车提供燃料的内容。

You can read, can we fuel cars with grass on howstuffworks.com.

如需了解更多信息以及数千个其他主题，请访问howstuffworks.com。

For more on this and thousands of other topics, visit howstuffworks.com.

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Let us know what you think.

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本节目由焕然一新的2012款凯美瑞赞助播出。

Brought to you by the reinvented 2012 Camry.

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