Onions make you cry, add flavor to food and are touted¹ for their medicinal benefits. Now the vegetable has another use -powering up green energy.

洋葱可以剌激得人流泪，可以在烹制食物时作为调料增加香味，而且它还有医学价值。现在，这种蔬菜又有了另外一项功能——发电。

A new system debuts² that converts onion juice into electricity at Gills Onions, the largest fresh onion processor in the United States.

美国最大的洋葱加工商Gills Onions推出了一个新的发电系统，可以将洋葱汁转换为电能。

The Oxnard, California -based company expects its new onion-fueled power to reduce its electric bill by $700,000 a year and cut its annual greenhouse gas emissions³ by up to 30,000 tons.

据悉，这种用洋葱发电的新系统有望每年为该公司节省70万美元的电费，还可为公司减少高达3万吨的温室气体排放。

The happy ending to this green energy tale, however, started with another question: how to get rid of onion waste.

不得不说，既经济，又环保，这个绿色能源的故事结局很圆满。但是谁能想到，这一想法最初却源于如何处理洋葱废料这个令人头痛的问题。

"When we peel an onion, 35 to 40 percent of the onion comes off before we have a usable onion. That's the top, tail and skin around the onion before you get to the meat," said Steven Gill, co-owner of the 25-year-old company.

史蒂文·吉尔，这家己创立25年之久的公司的合伙人说：当我们要食用一个洋葱时，我们首先要去掉它的头、尾，以及剥离外表的皮层，这样我们才能得到洋葱的果肉；而在此期间洋葱已产生了35%-40%的废料。

They used to haul the waste to the fields for composting, but that became a problem. Ten years ago. Gill started looking at technology for a solution, including microturbines.

他们通常是把这些废料拉到野外作为肥料，但是这也是个问题。10年前，吉尔就开始尝试利用科技来解决这一问题，这当中就包括微型燃气轮机的设计。

"We ended up shredding⁴ the skins as they come out of the plant and extracting all the juice. which is very high in sugars. and bacteria love that stuff." Gill said.

“当洋葱皮被剥离之后，我们就将其粉碎，然后在其中提取汁液。但这种洋葱汁含糖量极高，很容易滋生细菌。”吉尔说道。

In the new system, bacteria produce methane5 gas from the juice. The gas then goes to two 300 kilowatt⁵ fuel cells, creating enough power for 460 homes. The company expects to get 35 to 40 percent of its electricity from the on-site generator⁶.

而在新系统中，这些细菌可以通过洋葱汁产生甲饶，然后这些气体通过两块 300千瓦的燃料电池，其产生的电量足够460户居民的日常用电。该绿色发电系统有望承担该公司 35%-40%的用电量。