二氧化碳是气候变化的元凶，除了生活中的碳排放，空气中的二氧化碳也是个棘手的问题。冰岛一家工厂采用了新除碳技术，捕获空气中的二氧化碳并将其转化为石头，这样二氧化碳就“无处可逃”了！

 

At the foot of an Icelandic volcano, a newly-opened plant is sucking carbon dioxide from the air and turning it to rock, locking away the main culprit behind global warming.

在冰岛的一座火山脚下，一家新开的工厂正在吸收空气中的二氧化碳并将其转化为石头，把全球变暖的元凶囚禁起来。

 

Orca, based on the Icelandic word for "energy," does its cutting-edge work at the Hellisheidi geothermal power plant in southwest Iceland.

这家名为Orca（源自冰岛语，意思是“能源”）的工厂在冰岛西南部的赫利舍迪地热发电站开展这一尖端工作。

 

It is the world's largest plant using the direct air capture technology (DAC), which is the least developed of the carbon removal technologies. Climeworks, a Swiss start-up that has just built the plant, is not deterred¹.

该工厂是全世界使用直接空气捕集技术的最大工厂，直接空气捕集技术是各种除碳技术中最不成熟的一种。尽管如此，开办这一工厂的瑞士初创企业Climeworks并没有被吓退。

 

By pulling CO2 from ambient air, the plant is different from more traditional types of carbon capture and storage (CCS) projects at highly-polluting industrial smokestacks.

这家吸收周围空气中二氧化碳的工厂和比较传统的碳捕获与存储项目不同，后者被用于捕获高度污染的工业烟囱废气。

 

Fans in front of the collector draw in ambient air and release it, largely purified of CO2, through ventilators at the back.

该工厂的收集器在通过前端的风扇吸入周围空气后，会去除空气中的大部分二氧化碳，然后通过尾端的排气扇将净化后的空气排出。

 

Project manager Lukas Kaufmann said "very selective filter material inside our collector containers" catch carbon dioxide.

项目经理卢卡斯·考夫曼说，“收集器内部容器中精度很高的过滤物质”会捕获二氧化碳。

 

"As soon as the filter is full, we close it off, and then we heat it up to around 100 degrees Celsius²" to separate the pure gas, Kaufmann added.

考夫曼说：“一旦过滤器满了，我们就会关闭入口，然后将其加热到100摄氏度”以分离出二氧化碳。

 

Dissolved in fresh water, the gas is then injected under high pressure into the basalt rock between 800 and 2,000 metres underground.

二氧化碳在淡水中溶解后就会通过高压注入地下800米到2000米深的玄武岩中。

 

The solution fills the rock's cavities and the solidification³ process begins -- a chemical reaction turning it to calcified⁴ white crystals that occurs when the gas comes in contact with the calcium⁵, magnesium⁶ and iron in the basalt.

溶液填满岩石的缝隙，凝固过程就开始了。当二氧化碳接触到玄武岩中的钙、镁和铁，就会产生化学反应，转变成钙化白色晶体。

 

It takes up to two years for the CO2 to petrify⁷.

让二氧化碳石化需要两年时间。

点击收听单词发音