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  • Today, 39% of all the fresh water

    如今,美國從河流、湖泊和水庫

  • taken from rivers, lakes, and reservoirs in the

    採集的所有淡水中有39%

  • United States is earmarked for the cooling needs

    專門用於滿足

  • of power plants that use fossil fuels

    使用化石燃料的發電廠或核電廠

  • or nuclear power.

    的冷卻需求。

  • The problem?

    這造成了什麼問題呢?

  • A large portion of that water ends up floating away

    大量的水最終都飄走進到了

  • in clouds of vapor.

    蒸汽雲中。

  • In other words, hundreds of billions of gallons

    換言之, 每年有數千億加侖

  • of clean, otherwise usable water are lost each year.

    乾淨、可用的水流失。

  • But now, a new system devised by a team of MIT engineers

    但是現在,由麻省理工學院工程師團隊設計的新系統

  • could provide an efficient, low-cost way

    可以提供一種有效、低成本的方法

  • to capture a substantial amount of that lost water,

    來留住那些大量失去的水,

  • ultimately making power plants less wasteful

    最終使發電廠減少浪費

  • and more self sustaining.

    且更加自給自足。

  • And the water collected could become a source

    而收集的水可以成為

  • of potable water for parched cities around the world.

    世界各地炎熱城市的飲用水源。

  • The motivation to develop this new system

    開發這種新系統的動機

  • stems directly from the inefficiencies

    相當直截了當,就是起因於目前

  • of current natural fog harvesting systems.

    天然霧收集系統的低效率。

  • Existing systems, which generally consist of

    現有系統一般是由

  • a plastic or wire mesh hung vertically in the path

    垂直懸掛在霧提路徑上的塑膠或金屬絲網

  • of fog banks, only capture about one to three percent

    所構成,僅能留住通過其

  • of the water droplets that pass through them.

    約百分之一到三的水滴。

  • The reason for such a tiny percentage is the result

    收集到這麼小百分比的原因是

  • of aerodynamics.

    空氣動力學的結果。

  • As a stream of air passes an obstacle,

    當一股氣流通過障礙物,

  • such as the wires in these mesh fog catching screens,

    像是位在捕霧篩網中的金屬絲,

  • the air flow naturally deviates around the obstacle.

    氣流會自然地在障礙物周圍偏離。

  • Thus, carrying droplets that were heading toward the wire

    因此,會帶著朝向金屬絲的液滴

  • off to the side.

    往側邊移動。

  • The researchers found once they zap the fog

    研究人員發現一旦他們用

  • with a beam of electrically charged particles

    被稱為離子的帶電粒子射束急速衝擊霧,

  • known as ions, the opposite effect happens.

    就會發生相反的結果。

  • Not only do all the droplets that are in the path

    不僅金屬絲網路徑上的

  • of the wires land on them, but even droplets

    所有液滴都落在它們上面,甚至連

  • that were aiming for the holes in the mesh

    對準網孔中的液滴

  • get pulled toward the wires due to the charge.

    也會因為電荷而被拉向金屬線。

  • The droplets then collect on that mesh,

    液滴接著會聚集在那個網上,

  • drain down into a collecting pan,

    向下流到收集盤中,

  • and can be reused in the power plant

    並可以在發電廠中重複使用

  • or sent to a city's water supply system.

    或送至城市的供水系統。

  • The team is currently building a full-scale

    該團隊目前正在打造他們系統的

  • test version of their system,

    全方位測試版本,

  • to be placed on the cooling tower of MIT's

    它會被置於麻省理工學院

  • central utility plant

    中央動力廠房的冷卻塔上──

  • a natural gas co-generation power plant

    這個廠房是天然氣熱電聯產發電廠,

  • that provides most of the campus's electricity,

    提供校園的大部分電力、

  • heating, and cooling.

    暖氣和冷卻。

  • In a series of experiments, the researchers demonstrated

    在一系列的實驗中,研究人員

  • the concept by building a small lab version

    打造了一個小型實驗室的版本──

  • of a stack emitting a plume of water droplets.

    會放射出羽狀水滴的排氣管──來證明這個概念。

  • They then placed their ion beam and mesh screen on it.

    然後他們將離子射束和網篩放在上面。

  • When the condenser is off, a thick plume of fog droplets

    當冷凝器關閉時,一層厚厚的羽狀霧滴

  • rise from the device.

    就會從裝置上升起。

  • Once the condenser is turned on, the plume

    一旦打開冷凝器,羽狀的煙雲

  • almost instantly disappears and liquid can be seen

    幾乎是立即消失,並且可以看到液體

  • condensing on the wire dome.

    冷凝在金屬線罩上。

  • The equipment is simple, and the amount of power

    這個設備很簡單,所需的

  • required is minimal.

    電量也很少。

  • And the result is something priceless.

    結果是無價的。

  • Access to free, clean water.

    得以取得免費、乾淨的水。

  • The researchers say this could be a great solution

    研究人員表示,這會是解決全球水危機

  • to the global water crisis,

    的一個絕佳解決方案,

  • by offsetting the need for about 70% of new

    它可以抵銷未來十年對大約70%的

  • desalination plant installations in the next decade.

    新海水淡化廠安裝的需求。

  • For example, a typical 600 megawatt power plant

    例如,一座標準的600兆瓦發電廠

  • could capture 150 million gallons of water a year,

    每年可以留住1.5億加侖的水,

  • representing a value of millions of dollars.

    這表示其價值有數百萬美元。

  • The researchers aim to test the system

    研究人員的目標是在秋季

  • at MIT's central utility plant in the fall.

    於麻省理工學院的中央動力廠房測試該系統。

  • The campus's power plant tests will not only

    這項校園發電廠測試不僅可以

  • de-risk the technology, but will also help

    降低技術風險,還可以幫助

  • the MIT campus improve its water footprint.

    麻省理工學院校園改善其水足跡。

Today, 39% of all the fresh water

如今,美國從河流、湖泊和水庫

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