兩家公司在捕獲二氧化碳方面取得進展

藍利霞

As the world struggles to deal with the climate crisis， some companies are working to remove polluting carbon dioxide from the air. That’s a bulky and challenging goal， but two US companies have recently made important progress.

Scientists say there’s so much CO2 in the atmosphere. That means humans need to come up with ways of removing carbon from the air and storing it. This is called Direct Air Capture （DAC）.

A company called Heirloom has just opened the first DAC plant in the United States. Heirloom’s process uses limestone， a common rock， to capture CO2. The company heats up limestone to separate out the CO2， which is then locked away in concrete. Heirloom uses renewable electricity to produce the heat， so the process doesn’t produce more CO2.

The process is extremely expensive， but many large， polluting companies are paying Heirloom to share the credit for removing the CO2. The new plant can remove 1，000 tons of CO2 a year. That’s a tiny amount compared to how much carbon needs to be removed from the atmosphere. But the company says it hopes to remove a billion tons per year by 2035.

Graphyte is another US company working on DAC. The company claims its carbon capture method is very cheap， mainly because Graphyte lets plants do the work of capturing the CO2. The company collects unwanted plants and wood products from farmers and lumber companies. It dries this “biomass” completely so that it can’t break down. Graphyte then smashes the dried plants into small bricks which it seals in a special wrapper and buries deep underground.

Graphyte says its process doesn’t use much energy and can work anywhere. The plant and tree material the process uses would release carbon if it wasn’t treated. And the cost is less than $100 to capture a ton of CO2. That’s far cheaper than most other DAC processes. The company is building a factory， but it’s not running yet.

（材料出自News For Kids網站，有刪改）

1. What does the underlined word “bulky” mean in Paragraph 1？

A. Dear. ? B. Huge.

C. Funny. D. Interesting.

2. What does Heirloom use to capture CO2？

A. Heat. B. Lock.

C. Concrete. ? D. Limestone.

3. What can be inferred from Paragraph 4？

A. Heirloom’s way are shared free.

B. Heirloom’s process is too expensive.

C. Heirloom can remove great carbon in a year.

D. Heirloom is popular among large， polluting company.

4. Why is Graphyte’s process cheap？

A. Graphyte uses unwanted plants and wood products.

B. Graphyte asks their workers to dry plants into small bricks.

C. Graphyte asks farmers and lumber companies to help them.

D. Graphyte uses cheap wrappers and buries them underground.

1. B。解析：詞義猜測題。根據材料第一段第一句中的“the climate crisis”和第二句中的“challenging goal”，我們可知氣候問題是個富有挑戰性的問題，同時也是“龐大的（bulky）”。故選B。

2. D。解析：細節理解題。根據材料第三段第二句“Heirloom’s process uses limestone， a common rock， to capture CO2”，我們可知Heirloom用石灰石來捕獲二氧化碳。故選D。

3. D。解析：推理判斷題。根據材料第四段第一句“The process is extremely expensive， but many large， polluting companies are paying Heirloom to share the credit for removing the CO2”，我們可知雖然Heirloom的處理方式非常耗錢，但是許多污染嚴重的大公司都在向Heirloom支付費用，以分享去除二氧化碳的功勞，這說明Heirloom是受歡迎的。故選D。

4. A。解析：細節理解題。根據材料第五段第二句“The company claims its carbon capture method is very cheap， mainly because Graphyte lets plants do the work of capturing the CO2”，我們可知Graphyte使用植物來捕獲二氧化碳，所以它的處理方式花費較少。故選A。