2023考研英語(yǔ)閱讀用于油井的太陽(yáng)熱
Solar heat for oil wells
用于油井的太陽(yáng)熱
Mirrors in glasshouses can be used to heat stones
玻璃房里的鏡子.....可以用來(lái)加熱石頭
THERE is a lot of energy from ancient sunshine stored in the oil that sits below the deserts ofOman.
在Oman的沙漠下面埋藏著石油, 這些石油中儲(chǔ)存著來(lái)自遠(yuǎn)古太陽(yáng)光的豐富能量。
There is also a lot of sunshine hitting those deserts today.
在今天, 也還是有大量的太陽(yáng)光照射在這篇沙漠上。
A new wrinkle to an established technology should allow some of that current sunshine tobe employed to get at more of the ancient stuff.
一項(xiàng)已經(jīng)成熟的科技的新應(yīng)用能夠使用現(xiàn)在的太陽(yáng)光來(lái)得到更多的古老東西。
Using heat-in the form of steam-to liberate disobligingly thick and gunky oil which wouldotherwise stay in the ground is nothing new.
利用熱--以蒸汽的形式--來(lái)釋放埋在地下的油膩的稠油已經(jīng)被人們熟知。
Such enhanced-recovery techniques date back to the 1950s and 40% of California s oilproduction now depends on steaming subterranean rocks in this way.
這種強(qiáng)化開(kāi)采技術(shù)可以追溯到20世紀(jì)50年代, 現(xiàn)在加利福尼亞40%的石油產(chǎn)出都是依靠這種方式來(lái)蒸餾地下巖石。
The steam, however, is made by burning other fossil fuels-normally natural gas-and becauseheating rock takes a lot of steam, making that steam takes a lot of money.
然而, 蒸汽是需要燃燒其他燃料來(lái)產(chǎn)生的--一般來(lái)說(shuō)是天然氣--因?yàn)榧訜釒r石需要很多的蒸氣, 那么制造這些蒸汽的成本就會(huì)很高。
It also adds to the oil s climate footprint.
這也增加了石油的氣候足跡。
The amount of gas used means that a barrel of Californian heavy oil gives the stuff fromCanada s tar sands a run for its money in terms of associated greenhouse-gas emissions.
就相關(guān)的溫室氣體排放來(lái)說(shuō), 所使用的燃?xì)獾目偭恳馕吨煌凹永Ｄ醽喼赜秃蛷募幽么笥蜕爸刑釤挼挠偷呐欧挪幌嗌舷隆?/p>
GlassPoint, a small Californian company, thinks it can make steam for oil recovery morecleanly and cheaply by using sunshine to do the heating.
加利福尼亞一家小公司GlassPoint認(rèn)為自己能夠利用太陽(yáng)光加熱使蒸汽更清潔更便宜。
This sounds surprising.
這聽(tīng)起來(lái)讓人吃驚。
Solar-thermal power stations, which employ mirrors to concentrate sunlight on boilers andthus raise steam to generate electricity by turning turbines, are far from cheap comparedwith gas-fired stations.
太陽(yáng)熱發(fā)電站利用鏡子將太陽(yáng)光集中到鍋爐上并因此產(chǎn)生蒸汽推動(dòng)渦輪來(lái)發(fā)電, 這與燃?xì)獍l(fā)電站比起來(lái)一點(diǎn)也不便宜。
But solar-thermal electricity faces exacting challenges.
但是太陽(yáng)熱發(fā)電正面臨著讓人興奮的挑戰(zhàn)。
To feed a turbine you need particularly pure steam, which can be a problem if you are in adesert.
為了能夠推動(dòng)渦輪, 你需要特別純凈的蒸氣, 如果處于沙漠地帶那么這將是個(gè)問(wèn)題。
And to get the most out of the system you need the steam to be both very hot indeed andavailable in copious amounts.
為了能夠充分的利用該系統(tǒng), 你所需要的蒸氣溫度必須十分高并且可利用的數(shù)量十分充足。
Oil wells, GlassPoint s founders noticed, are far less demanding consumers in theserespects.
GlassPoint的創(chuàng)建者們發(fā)現(xiàn), 在這些方面, 油井就不是那么挑剔的消費(fèi)者。
The steam used can be comparatively dirty. Nor does it have to be infernally hot.
其所使用的蒸氣可以很臟, 溫度也不需要達(dá)到非常高。
And even a small amount of it, added to an existing gas-based recovery process, can makea useful contribution.
而且哪怕是向已存在的基于燃?xì)獾拈_(kāi)采過(guò)程中添加一點(diǎn)蒸汽都會(huì)產(chǎn)生很大的效果。
There are, though, disadvantages to having to work in an oilfield.
但是, 在油田中利用太陽(yáng)光加熱產(chǎn)生蒸汽還是有不利之處的。
People building solar-thermal power stations prefer sites low in dust.
建造太陽(yáng)熱發(fā)電站需要位于灰塵密度較低的地方。
Those serving the oil industry must go where the rigs are, however dusty and mucky the air.
那些服務(wù)于石油工業(yè)的設(shè)備必須在鉆井平臺(tái)上, 但是那里空氣骯臟。
GlassPoint seems to have found a neat solution to this: it puts its mirrors indoors.
GlassPoint似乎找到了解決這一問(wèn)題的有效方法: 將鏡子放在室內(nèi)。
Greenhouses are easy to buy, quick to erect and, thanks to off-the-shelf kit designed for thepurpose, simple to keep clean, too.
溫室容易購(gòu)買(mǎi), 并且由于是普遍的套件設(shè)計(jì), 所以安裝快速, 保潔簡(jiǎn)單。
Moreover, sheltering the mirrors from the wind allows those mirrors to be a lot lighter,making them both cheap to build and ship, and easier to turn in order to follow the sun.
另外, 由于鏡子避免了暴露在風(fēng)中所以鏡子可以更輕便, 使得鏡子的生產(chǎn)和運(yùn)輸成本更低并且也更容易隨著太陽(yáng)的位置變動(dòng)方向。
GlassPoint s boss, Rod MacGregor, thinks that taking capital costs and the lifetime of the plantinto account his firm can produce steam at $3.78 per million British thermal units ,which is $3.58 a gigajoule.
GlassPoint的老板Rod MacGregor認(rèn)為如果把資本成本和工廠的生命期算在內(nèi)的話, 他的公司可以以每百萬(wàn)英熱單位3.78美金的價(jià)格生產(chǎn)蒸汽, 即十億焦耳3.58美金。
Steam from gas comes in at $5.79 per million btu.
燃?xì)馍a(chǎn)的蒸氣則達(dá)到每百萬(wàn)英熱單位5.79美金。
A pilot project in California, he says, has been producing steam as intended since thebeginning of the year.
Rod MacGregor說(shuō)從今年年初的時(shí)候在加利福尼亞的實(shí)驗(yàn)性工廠已將開(kāi)始按計(jì)劃運(yùn)行生產(chǎn)蒸汽。
And the company has now signed a deal with Petroleum Development Oman for 7 megawattsof plant-a 16,000-square-metre greenhouse providing some 57 billion btu of steam a year.
現(xiàn)在公司正在為Petroleum Development Oman設(shè)計(jì)一個(gè)年產(chǎn)7百萬(wàn)瓦特的工廠--一個(gè)16000平方米溫室, 每年生產(chǎn)大概570億英熱單位的蒸氣。
If it pans out, the technology could spread fast.
如果該設(shè)計(jì)交易成功了, 那么這項(xiàng)技術(shù)將會(huì)快速傳播。
Mr MacGregor expects Oman to be using 200 trillion btu of steam a year for oil recovery by2023.
MacGregor預(yù)計(jì)到2023年Oman每年用于采油的蒸氣將達(dá)到200萬(wàn)億英熱單位蒸汽。
Not all of that steam could be solar, but a system which used high-pressure solar steamduring the day and low-pressure gas-generated steam by night, to keep the pipes hot,might get 80% of its power from the sun.
盡管不是所有的蒸氣都是太陽(yáng)能生產(chǎn)的, 但是白天使用高壓太陽(yáng)能生產(chǎn)蒸汽, 晚上使用低壓燃?xì)馍a(chǎn)蒸氣來(lái)維持管道高溫的系統(tǒng)可能其80%的能源都來(lái)自于太陽(yáng)。
That would free up a lot of gas for export-or for turning into petrochemicals.
這樣可以節(jié)約出很多燃?xì)夤┏隹?-或者轉(zhuǎn)而應(yīng)用到石油化工中。
Enhanced oil recovery currently uses a quite remarkable amount of energy: 1.7 quadrillionbtu of gas around the world every year, according to GlassPoint.
當(dāng)下驅(qū)油所使用的能源總量驚人: 根據(jù)GlassPoint統(tǒng)計(jì), 每年全球在這方面使用的燃?xì)獯蠹s為1.7千兆英熱單位。
Not all of that is in sunny places, but there are many deserts besides Oman s that have oilbeneath them.
雖然不是所有的油井都在陽(yáng)光普照的地方, 但是除了Oman以外還有很多的存有油井的沙漠。
The paradoxical possibility, then, is that solar-thermal technology might end up producing alot more oil than electricity in the years to come.
那么也許會(huì)有一個(gè)似是而非的可能--未來(lái)的某一天, 太陽(yáng)熱技術(shù)開(kāi)采的石油會(huì)比電開(kāi)采的石油多很多。
Solar heat for oil wells
用于油井的太陽(yáng)熱
Mirrors in glasshouses can be used to heat stones
玻璃房里的鏡子.....可以用來(lái)加熱石頭
THERE is a lot of energy from ancient sunshine stored in the oil that sits below the deserts ofOman.
在Oman的沙漠下面埋藏著石油, 這些石油中儲(chǔ)存著來(lái)自遠(yuǎn)古太陽(yáng)光的豐富能量。
There is also a lot of sunshine hitting those deserts today.
在今天, 也還是有大量的太陽(yáng)光照射在這篇沙漠上。
A new wrinkle to an established technology should allow some of that current sunshine tobe employed to get at more of the ancient stuff.
一項(xiàng)已經(jīng)成熟的科技的新應(yīng)用能夠使用現(xiàn)在的太陽(yáng)光來(lái)得到更多的古老東西。
Using heat-in the form of steam-to liberate disobligingly thick and gunky oil which wouldotherwise stay in the ground is nothing new.
利用熱--以蒸汽的形式--來(lái)釋放埋在地下的油膩的稠油已經(jīng)被人們熟知。
Such enhanced-recovery techniques date back to the 1950s and 40% of California s oilproduction now depends on steaming subterranean rocks in this way.
這種強(qiáng)化開(kāi)采技術(shù)可以追溯到20世紀(jì)50年代, 現(xiàn)在加利福尼亞40%的石油產(chǎn)出都是依靠這種方式來(lái)蒸餾地下巖石。
The steam, however, is made by burning other fossil fuels-normally natural gas-and becauseheating rock takes a lot of steam, making that steam takes a lot of money.
然而, 蒸汽是需要燃燒其他燃料來(lái)產(chǎn)生的--一般來(lái)說(shuō)是天然氣--因?yàn)榧訜釒r石需要很多的蒸氣, 那么制造這些蒸汽的成本就會(huì)很高。
It also adds to the oil s climate footprint.
這也增加了石油的氣候足跡。
The amount of gas used means that a barrel of Californian heavy oil gives the stuff fromCanada s tar sands a run for its money in terms of associated greenhouse-gas emissions.
就相關(guān)的溫室氣體排放來(lái)說(shuō), 所使用的燃?xì)獾目偭恳馕吨煌凹永Ｄ醽喼赜秃蛷募幽么笥蜕爸刑釤挼挠偷呐欧挪幌嗌舷隆?/p>
GlassPoint, a small Californian company, thinks it can make steam for oil recovery morecleanly and cheaply by using sunshine to do the heating.
加利福尼亞一家小公司GlassPoint認(rèn)為自己能夠利用太陽(yáng)光加熱使蒸汽更清潔更便宜。
This sounds surprising.
這聽(tīng)起來(lái)讓人吃驚。
Solar-thermal power stations, which employ mirrors to concentrate sunlight on boilers andthus raise steam to generate electricity by turning turbines, are far from cheap comparedwith gas-fired stations.
太陽(yáng)熱發(fā)電站利用鏡子將太陽(yáng)光集中到鍋爐上并因此產(chǎn)生蒸汽推動(dòng)渦輪來(lái)發(fā)電, 這與燃?xì)獍l(fā)電站比起來(lái)一點(diǎn)也不便宜。
But solar-thermal electricity faces exacting challenges.
但是太陽(yáng)熱發(fā)電正面臨著讓人興奮的挑戰(zhàn)。
To feed a turbine you need particularly pure steam, which can be a problem if you are in adesert.
為了能夠推動(dòng)渦輪, 你需要特別純凈的蒸氣, 如果處于沙漠地帶那么這將是個(gè)問(wèn)題。
And to get the most out of the system you need the steam to be both very hot indeed andavailable in copious amounts.
為了能夠充分的利用該系統(tǒng), 你所需要的蒸氣溫度必須十分高并且可利用的數(shù)量十分充足。
Oil wells, GlassPoint s founders noticed, are far less demanding consumers in theserespects.
GlassPoint的創(chuàng)建者們發(fā)現(xiàn), 在這些方面, 油井就不是那么挑剔的消費(fèi)者。
The steam used can be comparatively dirty. Nor does it have to be infernally hot.
其所使用的蒸氣可以很臟, 溫度也不需要達(dá)到非常高。
And even a small amount of it, added to an existing gas-based recovery process, can makea useful contribution.
而且哪怕是向已存在的基于燃?xì)獾拈_(kāi)采過(guò)程中添加一點(diǎn)蒸汽都會(huì)產(chǎn)生很大的效果。
There are, though, disadvantages to having to work in an oilfield.
但是, 在油田中利用太陽(yáng)光加熱產(chǎn)生蒸汽還是有不利之處的。
People building solar-thermal power stations prefer sites low in dust.
建造太陽(yáng)熱發(fā)電站需要位于灰塵密度較低的地方。
Those serving the oil industry must go where the rigs are, however dusty and mucky the air.
那些服務(wù)于石油工業(yè)的設(shè)備必須在鉆井平臺(tái)上, 但是那里空氣骯臟。
GlassPoint seems to have found a neat solution to this: it puts its mirrors indoors.
GlassPoint似乎找到了解決這一問(wèn)題的有效方法: 將鏡子放在室內(nèi)。
Greenhouses are easy to buy, quick to erect and, thanks to off-the-shelf kit designed for thepurpose, simple to keep clean, too.
溫室容易購(gòu)買(mǎi), 并且由于是普遍的套件設(shè)計(jì), 所以安裝快速, 保潔簡(jiǎn)單。
Moreover, sheltering the mirrors from the wind allows those mirrors to be a lot lighter,making them both cheap to build and ship, and easier to turn in order to follow the sun.
另外, 由于鏡子避免了暴露在風(fēng)中所以鏡子可以更輕便, 使得鏡子的生產(chǎn)和運(yùn)輸成本更低并且也更容易隨著太陽(yáng)的位置變動(dòng)方向。
GlassPoint s boss, Rod MacGregor, thinks that taking capital costs and the lifetime of the plantinto account his firm can produce steam at $3.78 per million British thermal units ,which is $3.58 a gigajoule.
GlassPoint的老板Rod MacGregor認(rèn)為如果把資本成本和工廠的生命期算在內(nèi)的話, 他的公司可以以每百萬(wàn)英熱單位3.78美金的價(jià)格生產(chǎn)蒸汽, 即十億焦耳3.58美金。
Steam from gas comes in at $5.79 per million btu.
燃?xì)馍a(chǎn)的蒸氣則達(dá)到每百萬(wàn)英熱單位5.79美金。
A pilot project in California, he says, has been producing steam as intended since thebeginning of the year.
Rod MacGregor說(shuō)從今年年初的時(shí)候在加利福尼亞的實(shí)驗(yàn)性工廠已將開(kāi)始按計(jì)劃運(yùn)行生產(chǎn)蒸汽。
And the company has now signed a deal with Petroleum Development Oman for 7 megawattsof plant-a 16,000-square-metre greenhouse providing some 57 billion btu of steam a year.
現(xiàn)在公司正在為Petroleum Development Oman設(shè)計(jì)一個(gè)年產(chǎn)7百萬(wàn)瓦特的工廠--一個(gè)16000平方米溫室, 每年生產(chǎn)大概570億英熱單位的蒸氣。
If it pans out, the technology could spread fast.
如果該設(shè)計(jì)交易成功了, 那么這項(xiàng)技術(shù)將會(huì)快速傳播。
Mr MacGregor expects Oman to be using 200 trillion btu of steam a year for oil recovery by2023.
MacGregor預(yù)計(jì)到2023年Oman每年用于采油的蒸氣將達(dá)到200萬(wàn)億英熱單位蒸汽。
Not all of that steam could be solar, but a system which used high-pressure solar steamduring the day and low-pressure gas-generated steam by night, to keep the pipes hot,might get 80% of its power from the sun.
盡管不是所有的蒸氣都是太陽(yáng)能生產(chǎn)的, 但是白天使用高壓太陽(yáng)能生產(chǎn)蒸汽, 晚上使用低壓燃?xì)馍a(chǎn)蒸氣來(lái)維持管道高溫的系統(tǒng)可能其80%的能源都來(lái)自于太陽(yáng)。
That would free up a lot of gas for export-or for turning into petrochemicals.
這樣可以節(jié)約出很多燃?xì)夤┏隹?-或者轉(zhuǎn)而應(yīng)用到石油化工中。
Enhanced oil recovery currently uses a quite remarkable amount of energy: 1.7 quadrillionbtu of gas around the world every year, according to GlassPoint.
當(dāng)下驅(qū)油所使用的能源總量驚人: 根據(jù)GlassPoint統(tǒng)計(jì), 每年全球在這方面使用的燃?xì)獯蠹s為1.7千兆英熱單位。
Not all of that is in sunny places, but there are many deserts besides Oman s that have oilbeneath them.
雖然不是所有的油井都在陽(yáng)光普照的地方, 但是除了Oman以外還有很多的存有油井的沙漠。
The paradoxical possibility, then, is that solar-thermal technology might end up producing alot more oil than electricity in the years to come.
那么也許會(huì)有一個(gè)似是而非的可能--未來(lái)的某一天, 太陽(yáng)熱技術(shù)開(kāi)采的石油會(huì)比電開(kāi)采的石油多很多。
