【英语时差8,16】啤酒能源

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Beer Power There’s nothing like a cold beer on a hot, sunny day. And in our energy conscious world, that brew¹ is even better if it were made using fuel recycled from brewery³ waste. That’s exactly what a team of German scientists is up to. The brewing⁴ process results in piles of used grain. Beer makers⁵ have to get rid of the waste somehow–either by selling it to farmers as feed or fertilizer, or in some cases paying a waste management company to do the job. And that can get expensive. So the German scientists thought of a third option–recycling the spent grain and wastewater as fuel. Using bacteria to break down the material, the scientists produced methane⁶ gas and an organic sludge. Gas and sludge are then burned to boil water and make steam, which spins a turbine to create electricity–electricity used to brew more beer. So would this recycling process work on a large industrial scale? The Sierra Nevada Brewing Company in Chico, California thinks so. They’ve been converting waste into energy on a commercial scale with great success. And if one brewer² saves money by being more energy efficient, others may follow. Which means that, soon, the ice cold brew you enjoy after work wouldn’t just taste great–it could also be helping⁷ reduce our collective carbon footprint.

 

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