用二氧化碳制成的伏特加

這種負(fù)碳伏特加(碳排放為負(fù)值，也就是說，生產(chǎn)時產(chǎn)生的碳要低于消耗的碳)是用采集的二氧化碳制成的。

A new brand of vodka from a startup called Air Co. is made from captured CO2 instead of yeast—and making a bottle of it is the equivalent of the daily carbon intake of eight trees.

一家名為Air Co.的創(chuàng)業(yè)公司推出了一種新款伏特加，它不是用酵母制成的，而是用采集的二氧化碳制成的，而且生產(chǎn)一瓶伏特加消耗的碳量相當(dāng)于八棵樹每天吸收的碳量。

“Our technology uses carbon dioxide and water along with electricity to create alcohol,” says Stafford Sheehan, an electrochemist and cofounder of the startup, which launched the product in a handful of bars, restaurants, and retailers in New York City today.

“我們的技術(shù)是用二氧化碳、水和電來生產(chǎn)酒精，”該初創(chuàng)公司聯(lián)合創(chuàng)始人斯塔福德·希恩說道，他還是一位電化學(xué)家。該公司目前在紐約的少量酒吧、餐廳和零售店推出該產(chǎn)品。

“That’s inspired by photosynthesis in nature, where plants breathe in CO2. They take up water, and they use energy in the form of sunlight to make things like sugars and to make other higher-value hydrocarbons, with oxygen as the sole by-product. Same thing with our process: The only by-product is oxygen.”

“自然界的光合作用啟發(fā)了我們。植物吸入二氧化碳，并吸收水分，然后利用陽光提供的能量合成糖類和其他高價值的碳?xì)浠衔?，而這一過程中唯一的副產(chǎn)物是氧氣。我們的生產(chǎn)過程也是如此：唯一的副產(chǎn)物也是氧氣。”

While making a typical bottle of vodka might produce around 13 pounds of greenhouse gases, Air Co.’s product is actually carbon negative, removing a pound of CO2 for every bottle produced.

通常生產(chǎn)一瓶伏特加可能會產(chǎn)生大約13磅溫室氣體，而Air Co.的產(chǎn)品卻是負(fù)碳的，每生產(chǎn)一瓶伏特加會消耗1磅二氧化碳。

The company captures CO2 from nearby factories—appropriately, much of it comes from traditional alcohol production.

該公司從附近的工廠采集二氧化碳，而且大部分二氧化碳恰好來自傳統(tǒng)的酒精生產(chǎn)。

Then, inside its own Brooklyn distillery, the team uses electricity to split water into hydrogen and oxygen. The oxygen is emitted, and the hydrogen is combined with the CO2.

然后，該團(tuán)隊在他們位于布魯克林的釀酒廠里用電把水分解成氫和氧，之后氧氣被釋放出來，而氫和二氧化碳化合(生成酒精)。

“We do that in a reactor with a special catalyst and that’s kind of our secret sauce,” says Sheehan.

“我們在專用催化劑反應(yīng)堆里完成這一過程，這個反應(yīng)堆就像我們的秘密武器，”希恩說道。

The combination makes alcohol and water. The final step is to remove the water through distillation.

(氫和二氧化碳)化合生成酒精和水。最后一步是通過蒸餾除去水分。

The whole process, including the still, runs on solar power “so the overall lifecycle carbon intensity of all the energy that we use is minimized, and in the end, we get a product that is net carbon negative.”

整個過程，包括蒸餾，都是利用太陽能完成的，“因此我們使用的所有能源的整個生命周期的碳排放強(qiáng)度被最小化，最終我們得到的產(chǎn)品是負(fù)碳的。”