Translator: Joseph Geni Reviewer: Morton Bast

Some years ago, I set out to try to understand

第二類條件句型

if there was a possibility to develop biofuels

on a scale that would actually compete with fossil fuels

卻不會與食用農業競爭水、肥料、或是土地

but not compete with agriculture for water,

Imagine that we build an enclosure where we put it

just underwater, and we fill it with wastewater

and some form of microalgae that produces oil,

然後這個空間的材料將會是有彈性的

and we make it out of some kind of flexible material

and the system that we're going to build, of course,

它們會消耗二氧化碳，這是件好事

微藻生長的空間能夠將多餘的熱能

The algae that grow are in a container that

distributes the heat to the surrounding water,

你可以收成它們來提煉生質能源

and you can harvest them and make biofuels

還有化妝品、肥料、及飼料的原料

and cosmetics and fertilizer and animal feed,

當然，你得讓它附蓋很大的面積

and of course you'd have to make a large area of this,

so you'd have to worry about other stakeholders

像是漁民和船等等，但這都是小事

like fishermen and ships and such things, but hey,

而大家都知道生產替代能源是多麼的重要

and we know the importance of potentially getting

Here you see a graph showing you the different types

用來生產生質能源的不同農作物

of crops that are being considered for making biofuels,

which makes 50 gallons per acre per year,

或是向日葵、油菜籽、痲瘋樹、和油棕

or sunflower or canola or jatropha or palm, and that

然後那個很高的圖代表微藻的產量

tall graph there shows what microalgae can contribute.

That is to say, microalgae contributes between 2,000

compared to the 50 gallons per acre per year from soy.

So what are microalgae? Microalgae are micro --

that is, they're extremely small, as you can see here

a picture of those single-celled organisms

這些微生物已經存在幾百萬年了

for millions of years and there's thousands

of different species of microalgae in the world,

其中有些是世界上生長最快的植物

some of which are the fastest-growing plants on the planet,

並生產，就如我剛剛所說的，很多很多油

and produce, as I just showed you, lots and lots of oil.

那為什麼我們選擇在沿岸做這個計劃?

Well, the reason we're doing this offshore is because

如果你觀察沿海都市，會發現其實別無選擇

if you look at our coastal cities, there isn't a choice,

這是因為如我剛剛提到，我們將利用廢水

because we're going to use waste water, as I suggested,

如果你看看我們的廢水處理廠的位置

and if you look at where most of the waste water

treatment plants are, they're embedded in the cities.

This is the city of San Francisco, which has 900 miles

and it releases its waste water offshore.

世界各地的都市處理廢水的方式各有不同

So different cities around the world treat their waste water

But in all cases, the water that's released is

對於提供微藻生長是完全沒問題的

perfectly adequate for growing microalgae.

所以讓我們想想這個系統會長什麼樣子

So let's envision what the system might look like.

We call it OMEGA, which is an acronym for

「沿岸微藻生長包膜」的縮寫 (Offshore Membrane Enclosures for Growing Algae)

Offshore Membrane Enclosures for Growing Algae.

它將如何運作? 我剛剛已經敘述了大概

So how does it work? I sort of showed you how it works already.

We put waste water and some source of CO2

然後廢水提供微藻生長所需的養分

and the waste water provides nutrients for the algae to grow,

and they sequester CO2 that would otherwise go off

and the wave energy on the surface provides energy

而溫度將會由周圍的水溫所控制

for mixing the algae, and the temperature

is controlled by the surrounding water temperature.

就如我所提的，藻類將生產氧氣

The algae that grow produce oxygen, as I've mentioned,

它們也會生產生質能源和肥料、食物

and they also produce biofuels and fertilizer and food and

而且這整個系統是自我封閉的。這是麼意思?

And the system is contained. What do I mean by that?

它是模塊化的。假設其中一個單元

It's modular. Let's say something happens that's

totally unexpected to one of the modules.

流出來的廢水是原本就會被排放到海域的

The waste water that leaks out is water that already now

the algae that leak out are biodegradable,

and because they're living in waste water,

they're fresh water algae, which means they can't

它們無法於鹹水中生存，所以會死去

The plastic we'll build it out of is some kind of

是一種廣泛使用的材料，效果良好

well-known plastic that we have good experience with, and

而且我們將設計這些單元，使之能重複使用

we'll rebuild our modules to be able to reuse them again.

So we may be able to go beyond that when thinking about

來考慮這個系統的用途，我的意思是

this system that I'm showing you, and that is to say

we need to think in terms of the water, the fresh water,

淡水在未來將會是個急迫的課題

which is also going to be an issue in the future,

另外需要考慮的一點是架構本身

The other thing to consider is the structure itself.

它將在海洋中為生物提供表面積

It provides a surface for things in the ocean,

and this surface, which is covered by seaweeds

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【TED】Jonathan Trent:漂浮藻莢的能量（Jonathan Trent：Energy from floating algae pods）。 (【TED】Jonathan Trent: Energy from floating algae pods (Jonathan Trent: Energy from floating algae pods))