能有效地将二氧化碳转化为液体燃料的新科技

工程师们建造了一种设备，可以有效地将二氧化碳转化为液体燃料

Scientists have invented a new method for turning carbon dioxide into a liquid fuel that can efficiently store energy in fuel cells.

科学家们发明了一种新方法，可以将二氧化碳转化为液体燃料，从而有效地将能量储存在燃料电池中。

The fuel could one day be the future of green transport, cramming more energy into the tank than the same volume of hydrogen while also serving as a building block for a whole chemical production industry.

这种燃料将比同样体积的氢气有更多的能量，有朝一日可能成为绿色运输的未来，同时也成为整个化学生产工业的基石。

In recent years, a new kind of technology based on formic acid has attracted attention as the next generation of fuel cells.

近年来，以甲酸为基础的新一代燃料电池技术引起了人们的关注。

Formic acid isn't typically what comes to mind when we think of the fuel of the future. Found naturally contributing to the pain of bee and ant stings, it is a formidable energy carrier. It just currently takes a lot of effort to concentrate into a useful form.

当我们想到未来的燃料时，通常不会想到甲酸。它是一种强大的能量载体，能自然地引起蜜蜂和蚂蚁的刺痛。但目前需要大量的努力，把它应用到一个有用的形式。

Engineers at Rice University in Houston, Texas, have rethought the entire production process and come up with a clever method to do away with some of the more involved steps, making the process far more efficient.

德克萨斯州休斯顿莱斯大学的工程师们，重新思考了整个生产过程，并想出了一个聪明的方法来消除一些更复杂的步骤，使生产过程更加高效。

"Usually people reduce carbon dioxide in a traditional liquid electrolyte like salty water," says chemist Haotian Wang.

化学家王浩天说:“通常人们会在盐水等传统液体电解质中减少二氧化碳。”

Those dissolved salts help convert the gas into a molecule that stores energy. But once you've got your fuel, you also have a thick briny soup to deal with, and sifting out the formic acid is painstaking work.

这些溶解的盐有助于把气体转变成储存能量的分子。但一旦你有了燃料，也会有一个厚厚的盐水汤处理，筛选出甲酸是艰苦的工作。

"So we employed solid electrolytes that conduct protons and can be made of insoluble polymers or inorganic compounds, eliminating the need for salts," says Wang.

“所以我们采用固体电解质来传导质子，可以由不溶性聚合物或无机化合物组成，从而消除了对盐的需求。”王说。

Replacing the electrolyte with a solid matrix was just one improvement. The second was coming up with a robust catalyst to speed up the conversion process. A common challenge is keeping a catalyst right where you want it, without it degrading and needing to be replaced over time.

用固体基质代替电解液只是一个改进。第二个是提出了一个强大的催化剂，以加快转化过程。一个常见的挑战是让催化剂保持在你想要的位置，而不会降解，并且需要随着时间的推移更换。

Bismuth is just the catalyst for the job. Bulkier than other metals capable of the same task, it won't move about as easily. You just need enough material to turn a lab-test into an industry.

铋是这项工作的催化剂。它比其他能够完成同样任务的金属更笨重，移动起来不会那么容易。你只需要足够的材料把实验室测试变成一个产业。

The research team found a solution here as well.

研究小组在这里也找到了解决办法。

"Currently, people produce catalysts on the milligram or gram scales," says the investigation's lead author, Chuan Xia.

“目前，人们生产的催化剂是毫克或克级的，”该研究的第一作者夏川说。

"We developed a way to produce them at the kilogram scale."

“我们开发了一种按公斤级生产的方法。”

The resulting device is engineered to channel the carbon dioxide through the catalyst where it transforms into a negatively charged molecule called formate.

产生的装置被设计成通过催化剂将二氧化碳转化成带负电的甲酸盐分子。

From there it diffuses into the solid electrolyte core, where it meets hydrogen ions released from a second catalytic reaction with water, resulting in a highly concentrated solution of formic acid.

甲酸盐分子扩散到固体电解质核心，遇到氢离子释放出的第二次催化反应与水，形成高浓度的甲酸溶液。

So far, the process has been shown to convert about 42 percent of the electricity from a power source into a chemical form that can be used in fuel cells.

到目前为止，这一过程已证明可以将大约42%的电能转换成一种可以用于燃料电池的化学形式。

This electricity can easily come from a renewable source, such as a photovoltaic cell or a wind turbine, providing a neat new way to store energy from otherwise variable power supplies.

这种电能可以很容易地来自可再生能源，比如光伏电池或风力涡轮机，这提供了一种简洁的新方法来存储来自其他可变电源的能量。

"It's also fundamental in the chemical engineering industry as a feedstock for other chemicals, and a storage material for hydrogen that can hold nearly 1,000 times the energy of the same volume of hydrogen gas, which is difficult to compress," says Wang.

“在化学工程工业中，它作为其他化学物质的原料，以及一种储存氢气的材料，其能量几乎是相同体积氢气的1000倍，而氢气很难压缩。”王说。

"That's currently a big challenge for hydrogen fuel-cell cars."

“这是目前氢燃料电池汽车面临的一大挑战。”

Mining the atmosphere for carbon dioxide in order to satisfy our growing energy demands amid climate change sounds like a winning solution.

为了满足我们在气候变化中不断增长的能源需求，在大气中开采二氧化碳听起来像是一个成功的解决方案。

Technology is leaping ahead in finding ways to use our overabundance in greenhouse gases to wean ourselves off polluting fuels, from finding ways to use it to charge batteries to taking a leaf from nature's page and improving on photosynthesis itself.

科技正在突飞猛进地寻找方法，利用我们过剩的温室气体，使我们摆脱污染燃料，从寻找方法用它来给电池充电，到从大自然的页面上摘下一片叶子，并改善光合作用本身。

Meanwhile, other researchers are keen to turn it into a solid material resource. If not simply bury the stuff deep underground in rock form again.

同时，其他研究人员也热衷于将其转化为一种坚实的物质资源，而不是简单地把这些东西埋在地下的岩石中。

However we do it, it's going to need to satisfy the economy before it does our sense of self-preservation.

无论我们怎么做，它都需要在满足经济需求之前满足我们的自我保护意识。

This research was published in Nature Energy.

这项研究发表在《自然能源》杂志上。