US Lawmakers Try Again to Keep Guns from Mentally Ill

Companies Make Gas from Garbage

The future in energy production is here. And some of the materials used to supply the energy may surprise you! Companies have developed a way to turn plant wastes and other garbage into fuel. It has been called one of the most promising technologies in alternative energy. And the process is expected to become more common this year.

The American-based company Fiberight is taking the lead in this new form of energy production. Truck loads of garbage are sent to Fiberight's test plant in southern Virginia. Randy Garrett heads the plant. He says old vegetables, cardboard boxes and other wastes become something much more valuable through the work done at the factory.

"What we're doing is taking a, that (what was) originally headed for a landfill, half of this material is going to be processed for the conversion of biofuel such as ethanol."

Ethanol makes up about 10 percent of America's fuel supply. Nearly all of it comes from corn, the food known as maize in some countries. Critics say this creates competition between food and fuel, and raises food prices. Environmentalists say farmers are using more land to plant corn crops. They also say farmers are using more fertilizers and products for killing insects. They say this creates more pollution.

But Fiberight does not depend on corn to produce fuel. Randy Garrett says the garbage is loaded into a huge pressure cooker.

"That converts your paper, your cardboard, banana peels, any organic fibers, it converts it to a pulp. That pulp is what we're after for our energy-fuel conversion."

The material that comes out of the cooker is mostly cellulose, a substance that can be made into sugar. The sugar can then be turned into ethanol.

In 2007, President George W. Bush signed a law that required increasing amounts of ethanol in U.S. gasoline. One goal of the law was to support production of new kinds of fuel. The energy created from plant material would produce fewer environmentally harmful gases than those from oil-based fuels.

This year, several other fuel production plants are expected to start making ethanol from the cellulose in corn stalks, wheat straw and other plant material.

Madhu Khanna is an agricultural economist at the University of Illinois. She says making cellulosic ethanol turned out to be harder than expected.

"We know how to do that in a lab. The main problem is doing that in a continuous way, cost-effectively on a large scale."

Ethanol production from cellulose has yet to meet expectations. However, this year could be the turning point. But Madhu Khanna says our cars may limit how much the industry can grow.

"Even if we can begin to produce this cost-effectively, we need to be able to consume it as well."

Only a few models of automobiles can operate on high-ethanol fuel. Without more of them, there is only so much gas from garbage that will sell.

I'm Jonathan Evans.

词汇解析

garbage

难度：3星常用词汇，属常用6000词

英汉解释

n.垃圾;废物;食物残渣

参考例句

用作名词 (n.)

The smell of the garbage overpowered me.

垃圾的臭味使我无法忍受。

In her home, garbage was fed to the pigs.

在她家,剩菜用来喂猪。

immediate

难度：3星常用词汇，属常用6000词

英汉解释

adj.直接的;最接近的;立即的;目前的

参考例句

用作形容词 (adj.)

The evidence has no immediate bearing on the case.

该证据与本案无直接关系。

Today's immediate problem is one of distribution of both food and income.

目前面临的紧迫问题是食物分配和收入分配问题。

conversion

难度：3星常用词汇，属常用6000词

英汉解释

n.转变;换算

参考例句

用作名词 (n.)

In the conversion of saliva into poison, one might suppose that a fixed process took place.

人们可能认为,唾液转变成毒液,其中有固定的程序。

When he saw how the theory increased unemployment, he underwent quite a conversion.

当他看到这个理论加重了失业后，他彻底改变了看法。

organic

难度：3星常用词汇，属常用6000词

英汉解释

adj.器官的;有机的;有组织的;根本的;接近自然的

n.有机物质

参考例句

用作形容词 (adj.)

The illness is organic in origin.

该病起初是器质性疾患。

用作名词 (n.)

Oil-yielding organic matter is contained in the shales.

在这些页岩里有产油的有机物质。

substance

难度：4星核心词汇，属常用3000词

英汉解释

n.实质;物质;财产;内容;重要性

参考例句

用作名词 (n.)

Later he became a man of substance.

后来，他成为颇具资产的人。

This argument has some substance.

这项争论具有一定的重要性。

sugar

难度：4星核心词汇，属常用3000词

英汉解释

n.糖，食糖;糖缸;甜言蜜语，阿谀奉承;宝贝，心肝

v.使甜;在...上撒糖

参考例句

用作名词 (n.)

I bought him a packet of sugar.

我给他买了一袋糖果。

用作动词 (v.)

If the lemonade tastes bitter,sugar it.

如果柠檬水发苦，就加糖。

straw

难度：3星常用词汇，属常用6000词

英汉解释

n.稻草;吸管;麦杆;不值钱的东西

adj.用稻草做的;麦杆色的;无价值的;像稻草人的;非正式民意测验所发现的

参考例句

用作名词 (n.)

The bird is building a nest of straw and twigs.

这只鸟在用稻草和小树枝筑巢。

用作形容词 (adj.)

The bumblebee sizzed right under his straw hat.

大黄蜂就在他的草帽底下丝丝作声。

largely

难度：3星常用词汇，属常用6000词

英汉解释

adv.大部分;主要地

参考例句

用作副词 (adv.)

The farming area is centered largely in the south.

农业区大部分集中在南方。

However, in the East, there were many solar deities, including the Greek Helios, who was largely displaced by Apollo.

然而，在东方，有很多太阳神，包括希腊的太阳神，主要地是以阿波罗来命名。