80 Bioenergy-High

Bioenergy FOCUS Question What is biomass and how is it used to produce energy?

生物质能焦点问题什么是生物质能，它如何被用来产生能量?

It's All Organic What do wood chips, corn, and cow manure have in common? (They're certainly not the ingredients in a good meal!) For one thing, they all consist of organic matter, which means they come from organisms. For another thing, people can use them to obtain energy. Matter from living or recently living organisms used as a source of energy is called biomass. People use some biomass directly as fuel— material burned to release energy. Some solid biomass is converted to a liquid or gas before it is burned. Either way, energy produced from biomass is referred to as bioenergy. Biomass is a renewable resource because it can be grown or replaced.

木屑、玉米和牛粪有什么共同之处? (它们肯定不是一顿好饭的配料!)首先，它们都由有机物组成，这意味着它们来自生物体。 另一方面，人们可以利用它们来获取能量。 从活的或最近活的有机体中提取的物质作为能源被称为生物量。 人们直接使用一些生物质作为燃料——燃烧后释放能量的物质。 一些固体生物质在燃烧前被转化为液体或气体。 无论哪种方式，生物质产生的能量被称为生物能源。 生物质是一种可再生资源，因为它可以种植或替代。

Energy from Wood For thousands of years, people primarily used just one type of biomass to produce light and heat energy— wood. Wood fires enabled people to see at night, keep warm, and cook food. Millions of people still burn firewood or wood waste such as bark, wood chips, sawdust, and branches from tree trimming. Some power plants burn wood or a combination of coal and wood chips to generate electricity. One problem with using wood as an energy resource is deforestation— cutting down trees faster than they can grow back. Trees provide homes for other organisms and remove carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas, from the air. Clearing trees destroys habitats and contributes to global warming.

几千年来，人们主要使用一种生物质能来产生光能和热能——木材。 柴火使人们能在夜间看见东西、保暖和做饭。 数百万人仍在燃烧木柴或树皮、木屑、锯末和树木修剪的树枝等木材废料。 一些发电厂燃烧木材或煤和木屑的混合物来发电。 使用木材作为能源的一个问题是森林砍伐——砍伐树木的速度比它们重新生长的速度还快。 树木为其他生物提供了家园，并从空气中去除二氧化碳这一温室气体。 砍伐树木会破坏栖息地，导致全球变暖。

Sugar Power Using biomass to generate electricity can be a sweet deal, as it is in South Bay, Florida. That's where you'll find the New Hope Power Partnership. Its large mill and refinery produce sugar from sugarcane plants. Then the power plant next door turns the leftovers into bioenergy! The power plant also uses recycled wood, which helps the waste from sugarcane burn better. It's the largest biomass power plant in North America. The biomass is burned to heat water in a boiler and produce steam. The steam rotates turbines to produce electricity. This process generates enough power for the sugar mill and refinery as well as about sixty thousand homes.

利用生物质能发电可能是一笔甜蜜的交易，就像佛罗里达州南湾的情况一样。 新希望电力合作公司就在那里。 它的大型磨坊和精炼厂从甘蔗中生产糖。 然后隔壁的发电厂将剩余物转化为生物能源!该发电厂还使用回收木材，这有助于甘蔗废料更好地燃烧。 它是北美最大的生物质能发电厂。 生物质燃烧后在锅炉中加热水并产生蒸汽。 蒸汽带动涡轮机发电。 这一过程产生的电力足够供糖厂和精炼厂以及大约6万户家庭使用。

Garbage, Manure, and Methane Think about all the banana peels, apple cores, and leftover food you've thrown away. A lot of biomass ends up as garbage, or solid waste. Every day, people discard plant and animal products. They throw away yard waste such as grass clippings and leaves. This organic matter can be used to produce bioenergy. Waste-to-energy power plants burn biomass and other solid waste (mainly plastics) and use the heat to make steam. The steam provides heat to buildings and generates electricity. Landfills can also harness the power of organic trash. Bacteria naturally digest, or break down, biomass. They release biogas, a mixture of mostly methane and carbon dioxide. Some landfills collect this gas, remove the carbon dioxide, and use the methane to generate electricity.

想想你扔掉的香蕉皮、苹果核和剩下的食物。 许多生物质最终成为垃圾或固体废物。 每天，人们都会丢弃动植物产品。 他们扔掉院子里的垃圾，如剪下来的草和树叶。 这种有机物可以用来生产生物能源。 垃圾转化能源发电厂燃烧生物质和其他固体废物(主要是塑料)，并利用热量产生蒸汽。 蒸汽为建筑物提供热量并发电。 垃圾填埋场也可以利用有机垃圾的力量。 细菌自然地消化或分解生物量。 它们释放沼气，主要是甲烷和二氧化碳的混合物。 一些垃圾填埋场收集这种气体，去除二氧化碳，并用甲烷发电。

Some dairy farms and livestock operations use cow and pig manure in a similar way. Like organic garbage, animal manure gives off biogas as bacteria decompose it. Farmers use sealed tanks called digesters to break down manure and other kinds of farm waste. Some sewage treatment plants even use digesters to get biogas from human sewage! Then they use the biogas to make steam, which heats buildings and generates electricity.

一些奶牛场和畜牧业也以类似的方式使用牛粪和猪粪。 和有机垃圾一样，动物粪便在细菌分解时也会释放出沼气。 农民使用被称为消化器的密封罐来分解粪便和其他种类的农业废物。 一些污水处理厂甚至使用消化器从人类污水中获取沼气!然后他们用沼气制造蒸汽，为建筑物供暖并发电。