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環境資訊中心外電；姜唯 翻譯；林大利 審校；稿源：ENS

22日，75間大企業的高管會見兩黨聯邦議員，要求美國國會通過包含碳價在內的重大氣候法案。這是十多年來國會山莊最盛大的氣候立法倡議商業聚會。

這些企業有英國石油公司（BP）、美國拍賣網站eBay、美國服飾零售商蓋璞公司（Gap）、美國百年牛仔褲品牌Levi Strauss、耐吉（Nike）、瑪氏食品（Mars Inc.）、微軟（Microsoft）、百事可樂（PepsiCo）、殼牌（Shell）、賽門鐵克（Symantic）和特斯拉（Tesla）等。

美國太陽能電廠開發商Silicon Ranch位於田納西州的案場。圖片來源：Silicon Ranch

參加這天「立法者教育宣傳日」（LEAD）活動的企業來自全美50州，其中21間為財富500強，包括貿易協會和中小企業，總營收超過2.5兆美元，雇用超過100萬位美籍員工。

企業代表與參眾兩院議員和國會工作人員進行一對一的會面，說明氣候變遷的經濟影響以及全面有效的國家氣候政策之必要。

越來越多的兩黨議員提出自己的碳價建議書。過去三年間，民主黨和共和黨合作在參議院和眾議院中引入了幾項不同的碳定價法案，包括「市場選擇法案」和「能源創新和碳分紅法案」，但這些法案後來沒有通過。

參與此次碳價會議的企業來自各種產業，涵蓋零售大亨、製造商、石油巨頭、醫療保健服務、食品和飲料公司、戶外產業、科技公司和能源供應商。

「投資者越來越重視氣候變遷的風險及其對公司和投資組合的影響，」瓦登資產管理公司環境社會和治理（ESG）暨股東參與主管史密斯（Tim Smith）說，「企業和投資者的合作在實踐氣候解決方案上發揮著核心作用。碳價將推動乾淨能源投資、發展就業市場和加強美國經濟所需的市場信號，是美國因應氣候變遷的重要工具。」

雪地運動產業想當然爾熱切參與這次會議。

阿斯彭滑雪公司永續發展總監漢密爾頓（Matthew Hamilton）說：「氣候變遷對我們在科羅拉多州和全國各地的戶外娛樂業構成直接威脅。因此阿斯彭滑雪公司致力於實現2020年碳排放量減少25％的目標。精心設計的碳價是美國減少溫室氣體排放、因應氣候變遷，同時保護經濟和確保我們這個產業能持續存在的關鍵工具。」

法國滑雪用品製造商Rossignol執行長高樂（Francois Goulet）也表示：「滑雪產業是氣候變遷衝擊第一線，已經開始感受到季節難以預測的問題。這個產業貢獻美國經濟720億美元，Rossignol身為產業領導品牌，承諾要動用影響力解決氣候變遷問題。」

滑雪產業是氣候變遷衝擊第一線。圖片來源：Kevin Chang（CC BY-ND 2.0）

除了Rossignol和荷蘭聯合利華等歐洲企業外，加拿大公司也加入，像自然之路有機食品 。

自然之路執行長斯蒂文斯（Arran Stephens）說：「我們看到了氣候變遷對商業的影響。北達科他州的乾旱影響我們的燕麥供應，加州的惡劣天氣影響我們採購美國有機葡萄乾、稻米和杏仁的能力。現在企業和政府必須共同努力推行政策，為地球帶來積極的改變，我相信全國性碳價是正確的開始。」

Big Companies Ask Congress For National Carbon Price WASHINGTON, DC, May 22, 2019 (ENS)

Representatives of some of the largest U.S.-based corporations are asking Congress to pass meaningful climate legislation, including a price on carbon.

Today, executives from more than 75 businesses, including: BP, eBay, Capital One, Exelon, Gap, Levi Strauss, Nike, Mars Inc., Microsoft, PepsiCo, Shell, Symantic and Tesla, met with a bipartisan group of federal lawmakers in the largest business gathering on Capitol Hill to advocate for climate legislation in over a decade.

美國明尼蘇達州一座由Xcel Energy營運的火力發電廠。圖片來源：Tony Webster（CC BY 2.0）

Gathering under the name of Lawmaker Education & Advocacy Day, or LEAD, the participating businesses include 21 Fortune 500 companies as well as trade associations, medium and small businesses from all 50 states, collectively representing combined annual revenues of more than $2.5 trillion and more than one million U.S. employees.

The businesses calling for a meaningful national carbon price span across the American economy, including retail giants, manufacturers, oil majors, healthcare services, food and beverage companies, outdoors industries, technology companies and energy providers. A full list of business participants is online here.

Representatives from these businesses are meeting one-on-one with lawmakers and congressional staff from both sides of the aisle in the House and the Senate to educate them on the economic impacts of climate change and the need for comprehensive and effective national climate policies.

A growing number of bipartisan lawmakers are offering their own carbon pricing proposals. In the last three years, Democrats and Republicans collaborated to introduce several different carbon pricing bills in both the Senate and the House, including the Market Choice Act and the Energy Innovation and Carbon Dividend Act, but these bills were not passed into law.

“Investors are increasingly aware of the dangers of climate change and its impact on companies and our portfolios,” said Tim Smith, director of environmental, social and governance, or ESG, shareowner engagement at Walden Asset Management. “Companies and investors working together have a central role in implementing climate solutions. A price on carbon would create the market signals needed to drive clean energy investments, grow the job market and strengthen the American economy. It is a critical tool in U.S. efforts to address climate change.”

Naturally, companies involved in the snow sports industry are well represented.

Matthew Hamilton, sustainability director at Aspen Skiing Company, said, “Climate change poses a direct threat to the outdoor recreation industry, both in our home state of Colorado and across the country. That is why Aspen Skiing Company is committed to delivering on our goal of reducing our carbon emissions 25 percent by 2020. A well-designed price on carbon is another critical tool in U.S. efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and tackle climate change while protecting the economy and the longevity of our industry.”

Francois Goulet, CEO of the French ski manufacturer Rossignol, said, “The ski industry is on the front lines of climate change, and our business is starting to feel the impacts of increasingly unpredictable seasons. As an industry that contributes $72 billion to the U.S. economy, and as a leading brand within this industry, Rossignol is committed to leveraging our influence to address climate change head-on.”

Not only are some Europe-based companies signing on, such as Rossignol and the Dutch company Unilever, but a distinct contrast between Canadian and U.S. carbon pricing attitudes is clearly illustrated by Arran Stephens, co-founder and co-CEO of Nature’s Path Organic Foods.

“At Nature’s Path, we see the impact of climate change to business,” Stephens said. “From droughts in North Dakota impacting our oats supply to severe weather in California impacting our ability to source organic raisins, rice and almonds domestically. It’s time for business and government to work together to implement policies to bring positive change to our planet, and I believe it begins with a national price on carbon.”

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作者

如果有一件事是重要的，如果能為孩子實現一個願望，那就是人類與大自然和諧共存。

於特有生物研究保育中心服務，小鳥和棲地是主要的研究對象。是龜毛的讀者，認為龜毛是探索世界的美德。

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環境資訊中心外電；姜唯 翻譯；林大利 審校；稿源：ENS

科學家已經找到將塑膠廢棄物轉化為航空燃料的方法。華盛頓州立大學生物系統工程系副教授雷漢武（音譯）帶領的研究小組將塑膠廢棄物在高溫下用活性炭熔化，產生航空燃料。

全球每年產生大量塑膠垃圾，至少有480萬噸進入海洋。Chesapeake Bay Program（CC BY-NC 2.0）

根據美國環保署最近期統計資料，2015年全美垃圾掩埋場共收集了2600萬噸塑膠。

2018年1月1日起，中國最近不再接收美國和加拿大的塑膠進行回收再利用，禁止24種固體廢棄物進口，包括塑膠瓶中使用的低階聚對苯二甲酸乙二醇酯。

中國過去至少處理了全世界廢紙、金屬和舊塑膠出口總量的一半，2016年為730萬噸。

科學家保守估計，現在全世界每年至少有480萬噸塑膠進入海洋。

在實驗中，雷漢武和研究團隊針對低密度聚乙烯進行測試。他們混合了多種廢塑膠，如水瓶、牛奶瓶和塑膠袋，並將它們磨成米粒大小。接著，將塑膠顆粒置於溫度範圍在430°C至571°C之間的管式反應器中，下方放置活性炭。碳是一種催化劑，能加速化學反應而不被反應消耗。

「塑膠難以分解，必須添加一種催化劑來幫助打破化學鍵。塑膠中含有大量的氫，是燃料中的關鍵成分。」雷漢武說。

一旦碳催化劑完成任務，就可以分離出來並重新用於下一批廢塑膠。催化劑失去活性後也可以再生。

測試不同溫度和幾種不同催化劑的組合，最佳結果是產生85％航空燃料和15％柴油燃料的混合物。

「我們可以從測試的塑膠中回收幾乎100％的能量，燃料品質非常好，副產品氣體品質也很高，具有實用性。」成果發表在《應用能源》（Applied Energy）期刊。

雷漢武說，這個製程很容易擴大規模，可以在大型工廠或農場運作，農民可以自行用塑膠廢棄物製造柴油。

「最終產物必須經分離才能產生航空燃料，如果不分離，就是柴油燃料。」

雷漢武的研究團隊開發出能降低成本並提高生質航空燃料效率的環保催化劑，去年贏得了美國農業部國家糧食和農業研究所50萬美元的資助。

研究人員用酶和玉米秸稈、玉米收穫殘餘物或道格拉斯冷杉樹木屑來產生一種叫做奈米晶纖維素的綠色催化劑。這種催化劑能產生環烷烴石腦油，是航空燃料的主要成分之一。

「為了減少能源和氫氣需求，提高生質航空燃料生產催化劑的性能，我們設計出一種新的催化劑，可以利用環保的天然分子。這些棒狀奈米晶體可以從任何農林業廢棄物取得。」雷漢武說。

雷漢武的研究團隊將廢棄塑膠轉化成柴油或航空燃油。圖片來源：Washington State University

Powering Jet Planes With Plastic Waste RICHLAND, Washington, June 4, 2019 (ENS)

Scientists have found a way to turn daily-use plastic waste products into jet fuel. In a method described in a new paper in the journal “Applied Energy,” a research group led by Washington State University Department of Biological System Engineering associate Professor Hanwu Lei melted plastic waste at a high temperature with activated carbon to produce jet fuel.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency says that landfills across the country received 26 million tons of plastic in 2015, the most recent year statistics are available. China has recently stopped accepting plastics for recycling from the United States and Canada.

China’s ban, which took effect January 1, 2018, covers imports of 24 kinds of solid waste, including low-grade polyethylene terephthalate used in plastic bottles.

China had been processing at least half of the world’s exports of waste paper, metals and used plastic – 7.3 million tons in 2016.

Now, conservative estimates by scientists say that at least 4.8 million tons of plastic enter the oceans each year worldwide.

In the experiment, Lei and his colleagues tested low-density polyethylene. They mixed a variety of waste plastic products, like water bottles, milk bottles, and plastic bags, and ground them down to the size of rice grains.

The plastic granules were then placed on top of activated carbon in a tube reactor at a high temperature, ranging from 430 degrees Celsius to 571 degrees Celsius. That’s 806 to 1,060 degrees Fahrenheit.

The carbon is a catalyst – a substance that speeds up a chemical reaction without being consumed by the reaction.

“Plastic is hard to break down,” Lei said. “You have to add a catalyst to help break the chemical bonds. There is a lot of hydrogen in plastics, which is a key component in fuel.”

Once the carbon catalyst has done its work, it can be separated out and re-used on the next batch of waste plastic conversion. The catalyst can also be regenerated after losing its activity.

After testing several different catalysts at different temperatures, their best result produced a mixture of 85 percent jet fuel and 15 percent diesel fuel.

“We can recover almost 100 percent of the energy from the plastic we tested,” Lei said. “The fuel is very good quality, and the byproduct gases produced are high quality and useful as well.”

Lei said the method for this process is easily scalable. It could work at a large facility or on farms, where farmers could turn plastic waste into diesel.

“You have to separate the resulting product to get jet fuel,” Lei said. “If you don’t separate it, then it’s all diesel fuel.”

Professor Lei’s efforts to create an environmentally friendly catalyst that could lower the cost and increase the efficiency in producing bio-based jet fuels yielded him and his colleagues a $500,000 grant last year from the National Institute of Food and Agriculture, U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Lei and his team will use enzymes to produce nanocrystalline cellulose, a catalyst. “Green catalysts” will be created from wastes such as corn stover, a remnant of corn harvest, or sawdust from Douglas fir trees. The new nano carbon catalyst is expected to create cycloalkane naphtha, a major component in jet fuels.

“To reduce energy and hydrogen demands, and improve the catalytic performance of bio-jet fuel production, we proposed a new catalyst design that we could leverage from environmentally friendly, nature-based molecules,” Lei said. “These rod-like nanocrystals can be sourced from any agroforestry waste.”

※ 全文及圖片詳見：

作者

如果有一件事是重要的，如果能為孩子實現一個願望，那就是人類與大自然和諧共存。

於特有生物研究保育中心服務，小鳥和棲地是主要的研究對象。是龜毛的讀者，認為龜毛是探索世界的美德。

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