从猪粪池获取清洁能源减少了个人与企业的碳排放

从猪粪池获取清洁能源减少了个人与企业的碳排放

In a secluded corner of rural eastern North Carolina, at the end of a long and winding farm lane, a pit of stinking hog manure is doing its bit to save the world from climate change.

在北卡罗莱纳东部农村一个偏僻的角落，在一条蜿蜒的农场小路的尽头，一坑臭气熏天的猪粪正在为拯救世界免受气候变化做出自己的贡献。

It may be a whiff of things to come.

这可能是一种预兆。

"You're standing in the middle of about 12,000 head" of hogs, says Kraig Westerbeek, an executive at Smithfield Foods, the country's biggest pork producer. The animals live in rows of buildings nearby, eating and excreting.

美国最大的猪肉生产商史密斯菲尔德食品公司的高管克瑞格•韦斯特比克表示，“你站在大约1.2万头猪的中间”。这些动物生活在附近一排排的建筑物里，吃东西，排泄。

Their manure flows into a big pond, called a lagoon, right in front of us. This is the standard form of treatment for hog waste in this part of the country. In the lagoon, bacteria go to work on the manure, breaking it down.

它们的粪便流进一个大池塘，叫做泻湖，就在我们面前。这是这个地区处理生猪粪便的标准方式。在泻湖里，细菌开始作用于粪便，将其分解。

"The bacterial action releases a biogas that's 60% to 65% methane," Westerbeek says.

韦斯特比克说:“细菌的作用释放出60%到65%的沼气。”

On most farms, that gas just goes floating off into the air — and contributes to the overheating of the planet. Methane is a greenhouse gas with a warming impact at least 25 times greater, per pound, than carbon dioxide.

在大多数农场，这些气体只是漂浮在空气中，导致地球过热。甲烷是一种温室气体，每磅产生的温室效应至少是二氧化碳的25倍。

At this lagoon, though, the gas is trapped by a blanket of rugged black plastic that covers the manure pond. The gas lifts the plastic layer and makes it bulge like the floor of a child's bouncy castle.

然而，在这个泻湖，气体被覆盖在粪池上的一层坚固的黑色塑料所困住。气体将塑料层掀起，使其膨胀，就像儿童充气城堡的地板一样。

The gas then gets pumped out to processing stations that remove water vapor and carbon dioxide. What's left is almost pure methane, also called natural gas, ready to burn in any gas-fired home furnace or electric power plant.

然后，这些气体被抽到处理站，去除水蒸气和二氧化碳。剩下的几乎是纯甲烷，也叫天然气，可以在任何燃气家庭炉或发电厂燃烧。

This basic idea — turning manure into energy — is not new. Many dairy farms are doing similar things, often using biogas on-site to power a generator.

将粪便转化为能量这一基本理念并不新鲜。许多奶牛场也在做类似的事情，经常使用沼气发电。

But Smithfield and the electric and gas utility Dominion Energy have formed a partnership with much bigger plans. They want to expand this to industrial scale.

但史密斯菲尔德与电力和天然气公用事业能源公司建立了合作伙伴关系，并制定了更大的计划。他们想要扩大到工业规模。

'Audacious goals'

“大胆的”目标

They're planning to spend $500 million building the infrastructure to capture methane from hundreds of hog farms, mostly in North Carolina. They'll connect farms with miles of underground pipes, collecting methane and feeding it into existing natural gas pipelines. If no pipelines are close by, the gas may have to be trucked to its destination.

他们计划投资5亿美元建设基础设施，从数百个养猪场收集甲烷，这些养猪场主要位于北卡罗来纳州。他们将把农场和几英里长的地下管道连接起来，收集甲烷并将其输送到现有的天然气管道中。如果附近没有管道，天然气可能要用卡车运到目的地。

"We've got audacious goals," says Ryan Childress, director of gas business development for Dominion Energy. "We've got half a billion dollars behind it.

“我们有大胆的目标，”多米尼恩能源公司天然气业务开发主管瑞安•切尔德里斯表示。“我们已经投入了5亿美元。

We intend to see that through and make a big difference for the environment, for farmers, and for customers who are looking for low-carbon energy."

我们打算坚持到底，为环境、农民和寻求低碳能源的消费者做出重大贡献。”

This methane, in fact, is even better than "low-carbon." Since capturing it actually prevents greenhouse emissions, it's considered a zero-carbon fuel under the rules of emissions accounting.

事实上，这种甲烷甚至比“低碳”更好。由于收集它实际上可以防止温室气体排放，根据排放核算规则，它被认为是一种零碳燃料。

If you burn this "renewable natural gas," the carbon dioxide that's inevitably released isn't counted as part of your carbon footprint.

如果你燃烧这种“可再生的天然气”，那么不可避免地释放的二氧化碳就不会被计入你的碳足迹。

In fact, it's sometimes considered a "negative-carbon" fuel that cancels out other greenhouse emissions.

事实上，它有时被认为是一种“负碳”燃料，可以抵消其他温室气体的排放。

That's the key to this business: People or companies who are trying to reduce their carbon emissions will pay extra for it — perhaps twice as much as regular natural gas.

这就是这项业务的关键所在:试图减少碳排放的个人或公司将为此付出额外的代价——也许是普通天然气的两倍。

"What changed, fundamentally, is the market for renewable natural gas, [and] the market for carbon, have allowed us to develop a business model, an economic model, that works for everybody involved," Westerbeek says.

韦斯特比克说:“从根本上改变的是可再生天然气市场和碳市场，这使我们能够发展一种商业模式，一种经济模式，适用于所有相关的人。”