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.

洋葱可以刺激得人流泪,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。

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 Oxnard, California — based company expects its new onion — fueled power to reduce its electric bill by $700,000 a year and cut its annual greenhouse1 gas emlssims2 by up to 30,000 tons.

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。

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

史蒂文?吉尔，这家已创立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。

“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.

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ih

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

“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。“吉尔獅。

In the new system, bacteria produce methane5 gas from the juice. The gas then goes to two 300 kilowatt³ fuel cells, creating enough power for 460 homes. The company expects to get 35 to 40 percent of its electricity from the on-site generator⁴.

而在新系统中，这些细菌可以通过洋葱汁产生甲烷，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。