科學(xué)家們找到了一種用光把塑料分解成有用化學(xué)物質(zhì)的方法

科學(xué)家們找到了一種用光把塑料分解成有用化學(xué)物質(zhì)的方法

Scientists said Wednesday they have come up with an environmentally-friendly method that uses artificial sunlight to transform plastic into power-generating chemicals, as countries worldwide battle to reduce waste.

科學(xué)家們周三表示，他們已經(jīng)提出了一種環(huán)保的方法，利用人造陽光將塑料轉(zhuǎn)化為發(fā)電化學(xué)品。目前世界各國都在努力減少浪費(fèi)。

Huge quantities of plastic have piled up on land and been dumped in the sea across the world, with many nations facing criticism for failing to tackle the problem.

大量的塑料堆積在陸地上，被傾倒在世界各地的海里，許多國家因未能解決這一問題而面臨批評。

Researchers in Singapore say they have converted plastic into "formic acid", which can be used in power plants to generate electricity, by using a catalyst which neither damages the environment nor costs a lot of money.

新加坡的研究人員表示，他們已經(jīng)將塑料轉(zhuǎn)化成“甲酸”，這種催化劑既不會破壞環(huán)境，也不會花很多錢，可用于發(fā)電廠發(fā)電。

In lab experiments, researchers from the city's Nanyang Technological University mixed plastic with chemicals to form a solution, which could then be broken down by artificial sunlight.

在實(shí)驗(yàn)室實(shí)驗(yàn)中，來自南洋理工大學(xué)的研究人員將塑料與化學(xué)物質(zhì)混合，形成一種溶液，然后用人造陽光將其分解。

The plastic was broken down in six days, and scientists hope the process can be carried out in future under real sunlight.

塑料在6天內(nèi)就被分解了，科學(xué)家們希望未來能在真正的陽光下進(jìn)行這一過程。

We are able to turn plastics, which are of course polluting the oceans, into useful chemicals, said Soo Han Sen, who led the two-year research project and is from NTU's School of Physical and Mathematical Sciences.

南洋理工大學(xué)物理與數(shù)學(xué)科學(xué)學(xué)院的Soo Han Sen領(lǐng)導(dǎo)了這項(xiàng)為期兩年的研究項(xiàng)目，他說:“我們能夠?qū)⑺芰限D(zhuǎn)化為有用的化學(xué)物質(zhì)，塑料當(dāng)然會污染海洋。”

We're hoping to turn this into a fully renewable process that's carbon neutral.

“我們希望把它變成一個完全可再生的過程，是碳中性的。”

Other methods of recycling plastic typically require it to be melted down using fossil fuels, which produce climate-damaging greenhouse gases.

其他回收塑料的方法通常要求使用化石燃料將塑料熔化，從而產(chǎn)生對氣候有害的溫室氣體。

But so far only tiny amounts of plastic have been converted into formic acid, and Soo conceded there are challenges to replicating the process on a bigger scale.

但是到目前為止，只有很少的塑料被轉(zhuǎn)化成甲酸，Soo承認(rèn)在更大的范圍內(nèi)復(fù)制這個過程是有挑戰(zhàn)的。

More manpower and funding were needed to develop it, and so far scientists had tested it only on pieces of pure plastic, and not waste.

需要更多的人力和資金來開發(fā)它，到目前為止，科學(xué)家們只是在純塑料上測試它，而不是在垃圾上。